Russian marines say ‘incompetent’ generals are treating them as ‘cannon fodder’

Russian marines have said their ‘incompetent’ generals are treating them as ‘cannon fodder’ after their unit suffered devastating losses, with 300 men reportedly killed or wounded in four days of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. 

Marines from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a scathing letter to their regional governor, claiming they had lost 300 servicemen in a four day massacre in Pavlivka thanks to the catastrophic planning of Generals Rustam Muradov and Zurab Akhmedov.

The soldiers claimed Russian commanders are ‘hiding’ the mayhem in the Donetsk region and are ‘playing down the number of losses for fear of being held responsible’.

The marines demanded in their letter that Vladimir Putin is personally told of the alleged massacre and sets up an independent military commission.

The letter comes as Russian soldiers from a different battalion claimed that more than 500 of their comrades had been killed in the village of Makiivka, an hour north of Pavlivka.

Indeed, new figures suggest that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far in the war.

Russian marines have said their ‘incompetent’ generals are treating them as ‘cannon fodder’ after their unit suffered devastating losses, with 300 men reportedly killed or wounded in four days of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. Pictured: Soldiers on the front lines in Pavlivka

Volunteers of the ‘World Foundation for Ukraine’ inspect a former Russian military fortification in the northern Kherson region on Sunday 

A pro-Kremlin war reporter highlighted the bloodbath in Pavlivka – known as Pavlovka in Russia – because he fears the marines are becoming ‘meat mixed with earth and boards’.

The marines wrote the letter to their regional governor Oleg Kozhemyako in Primorsky – in the Russian Far East – in a bid to get their plaintive message to Putin and upper echelons of the defence ministry.

They state in the leaked communique: ‘Yet again we were thrown into an incomprehensible attack by Generals [Rustam] Muradov and [Zurab] Akhmedov, so that Muradov could get bonuses from [chief of the general staff Valery] Gerasimov, and his promised Hero of Russia [medal].

‘So it was us and the Marines from Kamchatka advancing on Pavlivka.’

‘As a result of the ‘carefully planned’ attack by these ‘great commanders’ we lost about 300 people in four days, killed, wounded and missing.

‘We lost 50 per cent of our military equipment, and this was just our brigade.’

The marines added: ‘The enemy is destroying our men on the evacuation routes.

‘Pavlivka is also lower than Ugledar, from where they attack us.’

Ukrainian servicemen from the 127th brigade look up to the sky after hearing the sound of a drone at their position near the Ukrainian border with Russia in Kharkiv region on Saturday

A Ukrainian soldier works at digging a trench in the northern Kherson region on Sunday 

Marines from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a scathing letter to their regional governor, said they had lost 300 servicemen in a four day massacre in Pavlivka thanks to the catastrophic planning of Generals Rustam Muradov (left) and Zurab Akhmedov (right)

A pro-Kremlin war reporter highlighted the bloodbath in Pavlivka – known as Pavlovka in Russia – because he fears the marines are becoming ‘meat mixed with earth and boards’.

The marines wrote the letter to their regional governor Oleg Kozhemyako in Primorsky – in the Russian Far East – in a bid to get their plaintive message to Putin and upper echelons of the defence ministry.

They state in the leaked communique: ‘Yet again we were thrown into an incomprehensible attack by Generals [Rustam] Muradov and [Zurab] Akhmedov, so that Muradov could get bonuses from [chief of the general staff Valery] Gerasimov, and his promised Hero of Russia [medal].

‘So it was us and the Marines from Kamchatka advancing on Pavlivka.’

‘As a result of the ‘carefully planned’ attack by these ‘great commanders’ we lost about 300 people in four days, killed, wounded and missing.

‘We lost 50 per cent of our military equipment, and this was just our brigade.’

The marines added: ‘The enemy is destroying our men on the evacuation routes.

‘Pavlivka is also lower than Ugledar, from where they attack us.’

The marines appeal to the governor: ‘How long will mediocrities like Muradov and Akhmedov plan military operations for the sake of their reports, and for receiving awards at the cost of so many lives?’

‘They don’t care about anything but themselves, they call people cannon fodder.

‘We ask you to get in touch with the supreme [commander Putin] so that a commission is sent to investigate what happened.

‘Not from the Ministry of Defence, where Muradov’s ‘roof’ is Gerasimov, but a properly independent commission.

‘How much longer should we be standing it for!’

A howitzer, belonging to Ukrainian artillery battery attached to the 59th Mechanized Brigade, shoots-off to target the points controlled by Russian troops in Kherson Oblast 

Ukrainian servicemen from the 127th brigade inspect destroyed Russian army’s Armored Personal Carriers (APC) near the Ukrainian border with Russia in Kharkiv region, on Saturday

The governor has sent the appeal to the ‘competent authorities’, while claiming it could be a fake, according to local reports.

However multiple Russian sources indicate the letter from the marines is genuine.

It was first highlighted – initially without the actual text – by Russian state TV war reporter Alexander Sladkov, a staunch loyalist, posted on his own Telegram channel.

He warned ‘the blood is pouring and pouring’ among Russian forces, with ‘great losses’ of people and equipment.

After claims that the letter may have been the work of Ukrainian special forces, he hit back today denying his account had been hacked stating: ‘The goal is to save [Russian forces].

‘Let them become heroes, not meat mixed with earth and boards.’

Another pro-Russian war reporter, Semyon Pegov, said the slaughter of the marines was ‘extremely depressing news’. 

Another pro-Kremlin war reporter Alexey Sukonkin said ‘terrible bloodshed was taking place in Pavlivka’, adding that the regional governor ‘will have to answer for the mediocrity of a commander who organised this bloody holiday.

Sukonkin added: ‘He will have to look into the eyes of widows and orphaned children.

‘An unenviable fate.’

He said: ‘This is just a case when society is simply obliged to demand from the military personal responsibility for the lives of citizens who have arrived at the front for mobilisation.’

Reports also suggest heavy Ukrainian losses in intense fighting.

But there are claims that Russian troops fell into a trap occupying half of Pavlivka and then picked off by the Ukrainian forces.

Meanwhile, a Russian soldier from a different battalion has claimed that more than 500 of their comrades had been killed in the village of Makiivka, an hour north of Pavlivka.

A Ukrainian soldier prepares food at a position in the northern Kherson region on Saturday

Aleksey Agafonov, one of the alleged surviving servicemen, told Verstka in an unverified report that his unit was abandoned on the front line by generals and they were wiped out within days. 

‘We had three shovels per battalion and there were no provisions at all. We dug in as best we could and in the morning the shelling started from artillery and helicopters. We were simply shot,’ Agafonov claimed. 

 ‘When it all started the officers simply ran away.’

A group of wives of men from the same unit claimed their husbands had been abandoned. 

The news agency also quoted a group of wives of men in the same unit saying that their husbands had been abandoned.

‘They did not sleep, did not eat, for three days they held the defence and did not run anywhere, unlike the command,’ one of the women said in a video. 

Meanwhile, new figures suggest that Putin’s war has cost more than 100,000 Russian lives.

Telegram channel General SVR claims that the Russian leader has been informed of 77,291 killed in his regular forces since he started the conflict in February.

In addition some 23,517 have been killed in private military companies like Wagner which are involved in his war.

Further, some 5,308 Russian national guards have been killed, said the channel.

The Russian channel has regularly suggested the toll is higher than other sources.

If correct, it would mean an overall Russian toll of 106,116.