In an audio message, published on Wednesday evening July 12 on Telegram, General Ivan Popov announced that he had been removed from his post. The commander of the 58th army of the federal troops of the southern military district evolved until then on the Ukrainian front, on the outskirts of Zaporizhia. According to his own words, he had alerted the high command of the Russian army to all the problems encountered by the soldiers on the ground.
“I drew attention to the greatest tragedy of modern warfare: the absence of counter-battery measures, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations, and the high number of dead and wounded,” explains- he to the Russian media Meduza taken over by Courrier international. Deputy of the United Russia presidential party, Andrey Gurulev, chose to make this message public. Following this, and according to Popov, the general staff alerted Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who dismissed him after only one day. “They certainly saw a danger in me, but I had a choice between pretending and calling things by their name. »
If his remarks are not well seen by Russian officials, the independent press reserves a wide echo for him, as do certain pro-war groups. Thus, the administrator of the group GreyZone, close to the paramilitary group Wagner, does not hesitate to draw a parallel between Evgueni Prigojine and Ivan Popov. “Both have the quality of calling things by their name,” he explains. If for Valéri Guérasimov, the chief of the general staff, Popov engages “in disinformation and alarmism”, the story is different with the chairman of the defense committee, Andrei Kartapalov. “A leader’s most important skill is to see problems and listen to subordinates. So I think those who are supposed to have heard, seen and will act,” he explains.
Barely 48 years old, Ivan Popov had until then had a fine career in the Russian army, having notably commanded the 33rd Rifle Brigade in Adygea before being the Chief of Staff of the 11th Army Corps. army. But, now, the future of this senior officer seems compromised. “I have been removed from my post. I await my future military destiny,” he explained on Telegram.