Russian official blames 'incompetence' for Ukraine's losses

A senior Russian official in Ukraine blamed the country's military failures on incompetence and corruption within the top ranks of the Kremlin's defense apparatus.

In a 4 minute video posted to the encrypted messaging application Telegram, Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-installed deputy leader of Ukraine's Kherson region, blamed military losses on incompetent commanders who have not been held accountable for their mistakes.

Stremousov said that Kyiv is moving ahead with its campaign to retake parts of southern and eastern Ukraine that Russia captured in the initial weeks of the war.

Russian military officials and military analysts blamed the string of losses on what they see as mistakes by the Russian military, but few Russian-installed officials on Ukrainian soil have publicly skewered Moscow's flailing war effort.

Stremousov alleged that a number of what he called corrupt marauders and other miscellaneous riffraff were responsible for gaps on the battlefield. He singled out Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying he allowed this situation to happen. Members of Russia's parliament and regional officials have begun to criticize the Russian military, saying that not enough troops were deployed to hold parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Russian forces captured in the initial weeks of the conflict.

Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, head of Russia's State Duma Defense Committee, said Thursday officials had to stop lying about developments on the ground.

Kartapolov said in an interview with a Russian journalist that our people are not stupid.

Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's leader, criticized Russia's withdrawal from the strategic eastern city of Lyman in the region of Donetsk. Kadyrov, a key ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Russian troops were not provided with the necessary communication, interaction and the supply of ammunition. Kherson and Donetsk are two of the four regions Russia is planning to annex in violation of international law. Both Donetsk and Luhansk are located in eastern Ukraine, fighting against Moscow-backed breakaway republics in each region has been raging since 2014. Since the invasion began in late February, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are in southern Ukraine and have been occupied by Russian forces.

Ukraine s military has made significant gains in Kherson in the past week, liberating more than 400 square kilometers 155 square miles in an unspecified time frame, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman said. Stremousov denied this. He said Russian troops were holding back the onslaught and Ukraine's advances had been stopped. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the communities of Novovoskrensenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka had been liberated, suggesting that Ukrainian forces are making progress through the region's largely rural hinterland. Russian troops, the Ukrainian military said, were suffering heavy losses in Kherson and on Wednesday were trying to evacuate wounded servicemen to safety across the Dnipro River, as Kyiv presses further along its west bank.