A senior Russian commander who was responsible for troops fighting in eastern Ukraine has been removed from his position, according to reports from several Kremlin-aligned news outlets.
While no official reason has been given for Col. Gen. Gennady Anashkin’s apparent dismissal, a Telegram channel with close ties to the Russian Defense Ministry has alleged that he made up false claims about battlefield successes, particularly around Siversk in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk.
Anashkin’s appointment as commander of the army’s Southern Group had never been officially announced by the ministry.
But he had been named as acting commander on a list of participants at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in May that was published on the Kremlin’s website.
The Russian news outlet RBC reported that Anashkin was dismissed as part of a “planned rotation,” citing anonymous sources within the Defense Ministry on Saturday.
Mash, an online newspaper, also reported on its Telegram channel that day that Anashkin had been “removed from his post.”
No official confirmation of his dismissal has been published by Russian officials; NBC News has reached out to the Defense Ministry for comment.
However, Rybar, a popular Telegram channel close to the ministry, reported that Anashkin was “removed from his post for false reports in the Seversk direction,” using the Russian version of the region’s name.
Accusing Anashkin of “non-existent successes,” the blogger said that some of the areas he was in command of had “become synonymous with lies and unjustified losses.”
Rybar receives funding for contracted work from the state-owned defense industrial organization Rostec. The company was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in June 2022.
“Rybar relies on the connections and funding from Rostec,” the U.S. government has said, adding that it encourages “hate and violence in the United States.”
Russia launched its largest airstrike on Ukraine in almost three months last week, Ukraine’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said at the time. He added that the Kremlin had also deployed “tens of thousands of troops” to reclaim territory in Russia’s Kursk region that was seized by Ukraine in a surprise August incursion.
Putin also formally lowered the threshold for his country’s use of nuclear weapons last week.
The updated document allows Moscow to launch a nuclear strike if attacked by a nonnuclear country, such as Ukraine, that is supported by a nuclear state, such as the United States.
It was formally approved the same day that Kyiv used its first U.S.-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles against Russia after the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to strike inside Russia using American missiles.
