Posted on 05/15/2025 2:03:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sacked Russia's chief of land forces, General Oleg Salyukov, the Kremlin said, in the latest removal of a high-profile military establishment figure amid the war in Ukraine.
Salyukov, 70, will become a deputy to ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed last year and made Secretary of the Security Council. The move was announced in a Kremlin decree.
Less than a week ago, Salyukov was running the grand Victory Day military parade in Red Square with current Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.
Russian law enforcement has charged more than a dozen military and defense sector officials since last year, many of whom were accused of siphoning money from major projects for personal gain.
Shoigu, a longtime Putin ally, was downgraded last year after holding various top positions since the early 1990s.
The Kremlin has denied that the arrests and sackings in Russia's top brass were a purge of the military establishment following setbacks in Ukraine.
Salyukov had been in charge of Russia's land forces since 2014, overseeing involvement in the Syrian civil war and the war in Ukraine. He was a deputy head of the General Staff for four years before that.
Russia, which reportedly planned to take Ukraine, a country with a much smaller military, in three days, has been stuck in a bloody and grinding three-year conflict that has left thousands dead.
Ukraine and Russia are to hold their first direct peace talks in more than three years in Istanbul on Thursday or Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
What a bunch of propaganda. At least Russia has freedom of the press, unlike Ukraine.
RE: At least Russia has freedom of the press, unlike Ukraine.
Yeah sure, tell that to the reporters who have been killed.
Wow but fools here told me Russia already won the war.
That ungrateful Pootie!
It sucks supporting the unstable pig sty they call Russia.
I can't think of a more heinous crime.
and you hailed Zelensky as a young Churchill.
"I don't need a ride, I need ammo"!!
Kyiv in 3 days! Oleg Salyukov stronk like Zhukov!
Massive speculation where we fill in all the gaps the way we wish it were.
He has been in that position since 2014 (9 years).
The US equivalent is Forces Command (FORSCOM): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Forces_Command
Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council where he is going is (higher) in the food chain.
The US equivalent is US Security Council: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Security_Council
Like senior personnel moves in our own military especially when the MSM doesn’t like a President, the media often try to ascribe some meaning which isn’t there.
There is a good chance, that unlike us where we allow gaps, the Russians in time of war want seamless continuity, meaning he’s deputy while Shoigu (age 70) and who has been there a year gets ready to leave. Just my speculation.
Of more interest is who is replacing him.
Some younger feller presumably, who doesn’t drink as much.
List of reporters killed in Ukraine:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Ukraine
Freedom of the press in Ukraine:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_Ukraine
Personally, I would not want to be a journalist in either Russia or Ukraine.
In Russia that might be a problem.
70 is pretty darn old for a Russian general.
I was skeptical, given the source (Moscow Times of Amsterdam), which has not been the, um, most reliable.
Lots of dodgy innuendo in this MT article of course, but the general really was moved to the Security Council according to Reuters:
It might have been for any number of reasons.
“Putin Sacks Chief of Military’s Land Forces”
Accountability - strange term for the Neocons, but Putin knows the importance of it.
This is reality: https://www.online.ua/en/interactive-map-of-the-war-in-ukraine-879033/
2.) It's Ukraine that isn't a member of NATO, our stated political objective and cause for this conflict.
This caused the war: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
Ukraine has failed to achieve their political (NATO membership) and military (hold the Eastern ethnic Russian lands) objectives.
You can play pretend all you want and create all new criteria. You may as well claim Russia lost because they didn't invade Mars.
3.) It's Ukraine that has seen their economy tank in terms of GDP far worse than Russia. It is Ukraine that has a damaged infrastructure far worse than Russia. It is Ukraine that is massively in debt and selling their existence to Western nations like us (mineral deal, with Blackrock basically managing that nation). It is Ukraine that canceled their elections, banned opposition parties, shut down radio and print papers that say anything derogatory, while jailing journalists... It is Ukraine that had a massive refugee exodus and has seen their birth rate implode. It is Ukraine that is resorting to forced conscription (TCC videos are sad and amusing at the same time).
Other than making a statement, what facts or figures, actual tangible things we can measure do you base your opinion on?
The only thing you can point at are “make belief” casualty statistics that were disproven when Newsweek leaked the DoD / NATO documents that showed casualties to be similar and between 1/2 - 1/3 for the Russians what our media claimed at the time: https://www.newsweek.com/2023/05/05/read-leaked-secret-intelligence-documents-ukraine-vladimir-putin-1794656.html#slideshow/2222796 The beauty of BS casualty statistics is that it's possible to claim anything you can type, print or say on a microphone, unlike the land that Russia is sitting on and where you can't deny they hold it, or NATO membership which Ukraine does not have, and will not have.
Since then, the casualty ratio has probably narrowed (failed Ukrainian costly counter offensive of 2023 we want to forget), Russia countering (tactics and tech) some of the weapon systems and intel assistance we provide Ukraine, while also changing how they do things.
It was NEVER Russia's goal to invade and take all of Ukraine, that's what we pretend is the case. That was clearly stated by Russia's leadership as soon as the war began. Russia doesn't even want such a pain in the @ss. Like 2014 where they went after Crimea, they want those areas where you have a large Russian ethnic population and holding ground isn't a long term and large scale drain on their resources.
It might have been because he was getting old and tired (he’s 69). Or because they thought another general was more suited to a new phase of the war. Or because he was crooked. Or he was not performing to standard. No way of knowing at this point, perhaps ever.
Just imagine you are talking about Ukraine and you are going on and on about how they’ve gotten the worst of the war against mighty russia!
But the war goes on Russians dying at an incredible rate for over 3 years!
Three years! Yet you pretend Russia is doing so great.
It’s just that Putin doesn’t care about Russian lives. He’s a psychopath. His conduct of the is an abomination.
You could start and end with him using convicts and mercenaries, and they eventually turned around and invaded Russia!
Ever without that insanity he is wasting Russian lives at an outrageous rate for over three years!
But Russians are stupid enough to support him, and smart enough not to oppose him. They are used to despots.
I worked with both Russian and Ukrainian military, and both tended to be very heavy drinkers. In my experience, it was a bigger problem in the Ukrainian military.
The worst were the 7am meetings with a Ukrainian colonel whose office boasted three huge commercial freezers filled with vodka of various brands and flavors. I’d learned the only acceptable excuses for refusing the proffered vodka without causing insult were (1) pregnancy and (2) antibiotics. Well, one can only claim a fake pregnancy for so long, so I opted for excuse #2. That colonel must have thought I was sick all the time because I always claimed to be on antibiotics, lol.
This was 20+ years ago and just my personal experience, so ...
The Special Military Operation (SMO) as the Russians call it has limited objectives and those are met: (1) Block Ukraines NATO accession, the cause of the war. (2) Seize ethnic Russian areas in Ukraine.
Stringing together emotional words and ideas has never been an argument.
Using arguments that are sketchy at best, merely because they sound good and support ones cause is what people do, but it’s not an argument either.
You may as well add in stories about fighting to the last man in Snake Island, the glorious counter offensive of 2023, and the Ghost of Kiev... Make belief isn’t an argument.
The ONLY casualty report that has any credibility came from the leaked DoD documents which describe an entirely different scenario, where the casualties of Ukraine are less but still in the same ballpark to what Russia was suffering. That Russia had about 1/3 to 1/2 the casualties which our MSM and so called experts were talking about: https://www.newsweek.com/2023/05/05/read-leaked-secret-intelligence-documents-ukraine-vladimir-putin-1794656.html#slideshow/2222796
That was in year 2, when Ukraines advantage in weapons tech was greater, when Russia was employing tactics that weren’t working so well. In the meantime, Ukraine has also had a disaster of a counter offensive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.