Putin Sacked Army Generals Over Failed Task Amid Frustration Of Slow Progress, Claims Ukraine

As Russia and Ukraine hold talks to de-escalate the tension, a report stating Vladimir Putin has fired as many as eight army generals over Moscow’s military losses in the invasion surfaced.

The claims were made by Kyiv’s defense chief while on Ukrainian TV on Wednesday.

Ukraine Defense Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said Putin expressed displeasure over Russian intelligence agency FSB’s poor strategy and failure to gather information, media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported. International Business Times could not confirm these claims.

“[The enemy] had about 8 generals removed from their posts because they did not complete the task. New ones have been appointed,” Danilov said. “We clearly understand what is happening in the Russian Federation... What’s more, I can tell they’re desperate.”

Danilov's claims come amid other indications that Putin's army could be falling apart.

Independent Russian journalist Farida Rustamova said in a report on March 1 that Kremlin insiders were privately declaring the invasion “a clusterf---.” The report quoted a high-level source as casting doubt on Putin’s state of mind.

“He is in a state of being offended and insulted,” the source, described as a “good acquaintance” of the Russian leader, reportedly said. “It’s paranoia that has reached the point of absurdity.”

Last week, there were reports that an entire unit of Russian soldiers was allegedly abandoned in Ukraine for several days without any food or water.

"These are the guys who were thrown into Ukraine as cannon fodder," one of the unit's members claimed in a video uploaded by the state-funded news agency National News Agency of Ukraine. The soldiers had been stranded for three or four days, during which they did not have a "decent meal."

When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, many felt it would be only a matter of days until Putin's military got the better of Kyiv's forces. It's been a fortnight and Ukraine has put up a kind of resistance that was unexpected. Ground troops moved in from different directions, attempting multiple assaults on Kyiv and other cities.

Local authorities said Friday that Russian strikes hit near airports in the western Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk, far from Moscow's main attack targets elsewhere in Ukraine, AP News reported.