Putin Promotes Commander Known for Russia’s High-Casualty Offensives

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted Colonel General Rustam Muradov to the position of deputy general commander of Russia’s ground forces.

Muradov, who has served in various prominent military roles, including as commander of the Eastern Military District (EMD), is known for his combat experience in Russia, Syria, and Ukraine.

Muradov’s tenure has been marked by both significant military achievements and controversies. His previous assignments included commanding Russian troops in the Donbas and leading operations that have drawn scrutiny internationally. Newsweek contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email on Friday.

According to The Insider on Telegram, a Dagestan official, an acquaintance of Muradov, announced the appointment. It was a surprise to Russian pro-Kremlin military bloggers, known as milbloggers, who have reacted strongly against the promotion, citing that the commander is known for poor planning and huge losses.

Muradov faced criticism for poor tactical decisions, irresponsibility, tyranny, and incompetence, The Insider said.

The Russian commander is known to have led some of the bloodiest Russian offensives in Ukraine. As reported by Newsweek, Muradov was heavily criticized and held responsible for the failed Russian assault on Vuhledar, a Ukrainian coal-mining town in the eastern Donetsk region, while he was leading the EMD.

Russia’s attempt to capture Vuhledar, which a Kremlin-appointed official had claimed could turn the war in Moscow’s favor, failed after a three-week-long battle.

Ukraine’s military reported that Russian forces lost dozens of armored vehicles in their unsuccessful effort to seize the eastern Ukrainian city and the conflict saw Russian tanks inadvertently running over their own troops.

As reported by Newsweek, the commander ended up sending his troops right under the fire of the Ukrainian artillery and into minefields.

The army lost two elite marine brigades—one of which was probably the much-discussed 155th Naval Infantry Brigade—and 103 pieces of equipment in only three days.

Oryx, a website that monitors military losses in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said the Russian army lost a total of 36 tanks during the attack on Vuhledar.

In the same period, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were estimated to have lost only 20 pieces of equipment—one-fifth of Russia’s entire losses at that time.

Following this, Muradov was removed from his post. His offensive was described as “disastrous” by one milblogger and he was labeled an “idiot” by anonymous military sources.

The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based English-language and Russian-language online newspaper, said that two military sources had informed it of the suspension of the commander.

“Muradov was suspended because he was a crazy idiot who could order soldiers to die,” one of the sources told the online newspaper. “Many complained about him.”

The British Ministry of Defence recently estimated that 500 Russian troops a day died during the failed attack on the eastern Ukrainian town in February.

The ministry said that Moscow is running a “deliberate information operation” to rebuild the reputation of its elite units devastated during the failed offensive, especially the 155th Naval Infantry brigade.

“The [Russian] MOD’s effort to revive the brigade’s image likely reflects concern about the way in which its failures were being increasingly associated with Russian senior military leaders,” the ministry said.

“It is a feature of corrupt regimes that they prize loyalty over effectiveness, which can undermine any function of the state including the military,” said Robert Barrington, professor of anti-corruption practice at the University of Sussex, in the U.K. in an email to Newsweek on Friday.

“If the officers themselves act corruptly, that further weakens the state’s capacity for military action,” Barrington added.

Muradov orchestrated a similar offensive during the battle for Pavlivka in November 2022. The operation resulted in significant losses for Russian troops, both in personnel and equipment.

As reported by Newsweek, the Russian Defense Ministry previously issued a rare rebuttal of criticism by milbloggers that blamed poor army leadership for throwing Russian troops into the ill-fated offensive in Pavlivka.

One blogger account, called the Gray Zone, shared a missive it said was from members of the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade of the Pacific Fleet. The missive blamed military leaders, including Muradov, condemning the offensive as “incomprehensible.”

Muradov’s surname became a household name during the fighting in Ukraine “Muradovism” is what the military calls a poorly organized offensive in dense mechanized columns without engineering reconnaissance or artillery support, according to The Insider.