Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is being sidelined by President Vladimir Putin after failing to secure a quick and decisive victory in the Ukraine war, according to British intelligence.
The UK Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence bulletin on Monday, citing independent Russian media reports, that military commanders have begun reporting directly to Putin on the progress of the war, which has stagnant and now reaching the seventh month.
The A tweeted update was also alleged that “Russian officers and soldiers with firsthand experience of the war will likely routinely deride Shoigu for his ineffective and outoftouch leadership.”
British intelligence suggested that Shoigu, who had worked in the construction industry for years before entering politics, “has probably long struggled to overcome his reputation for lacking substantial military experience.”
Shoigu, 67, is the longestserving minister in the Russian government, having headed the Ministry of Emergency Situations from 1991 until 2012, when he was tapped by Putin to head the Ministry of Defense.
In that capacity, Shoigu led Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He has long been considered Putin’s close ally and confidant, and a member of the strongman’s inner circle.
On the sixmonth anniversary of the war last week, which coincided with Ukraine’s independence day, Shoigu claimed Russia had deliberately slowed the pace of its military campaign to minimize civilian casualties.
At a meeting of defense ministers as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Shoigu said the Kremlin’s socalled military operation “is in accordance with an established plan” and vowed that “all the targets”.
But Ukraine’s chief of defense intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, argued that the real reason for the slowdown was the invading soldiers’ “moral and physical fatigue” from the fight, which according to the latest Western estimates has over 47,000 casualties, along with thousands of expensive parts. military equipment
In the first weeks of the war, Shoigu disappeared from public view for several weeks, prompting speculation that he had suffered a heart attack.
In late June, the Kremlin released a video showing Shoigu visiting Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
With post cables