Putin fires deputy defence chief after supply failures in Ukraine; appoints 'Butcher of Mariupol' in place

Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s deputy defence ministerDmitry Bulgakov will bereplacedby Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev. Bulgakov was in charge of logistics in the war.

“Army General Dmitry Bulgakov has been relieved of the post of deputy minister of defence,” said Russia’s defence minister on Telegram, on Saturday. Reportedly, the country’s president Vladimir Putin fired him following the military’s dwindling logistics operations in Ukraine. He will now be “released” and transferred into a new role, indicated the ministry. However, they did not mention what would be the new role.

Bulgakov is being replaced with Mikhail Mizintsev who is also infamously known as the “Butcher of Mariupol”. According to media reports, the Col Gen has ordered some of the most brutal attacks on the city of Mariupol in Ukraine.

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Mizintsev has been dubbed with the aforementioned title following his orders of an airstrike on a maternity hospital and the attack on a theatre which was sheltering hundreds of children at the time. The 60-year-old has also been sanctioned by the UK for the same following his actions in the Ukrainian city in May, earlier this year.

According to BBC, this move has been seen as a punishment for Bulgakov after his flawed logistics operations in Kyiv after Moscow has not been able to make any headway in the past weeks. Bulgakov has been managing the Russian military’s logistics since 2008 and was also responsible to keep the Russian troops in Syria supplied in 2015.

However, the General has reportedly been sidelined by Moscow in the past months with many blaming him for the faulty and chaotic operations which have affected Russia’s advancement in Ukraine, said BBC. Meanwhile, his successor Mizintsev has been accused of the cluster bombing campaign on residential areas in Aleppo.

Russia has also pressured its only two remaining allies North Korea and Iran for new artillery and drones. Gen Bulgakov’s dismissal also comes amid footage being circulated on social media which shows newly drafted Russians carrying rusty assault rifles, indicated the BBC.