The appeal of General Ivan Popov , who said that he was “treacherously and vilely” fired after reporting on the problems of the army, was non-public and posted in private chats of the commanders and fighters of the 58th Army. This was stated by First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak. Earlier, Popov's audio message was published on the Telegram channel of Andrei Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee.
“The fact that the “deputy” Gurulev somehow got him and made a political show out of this, let it remain on his conscience. As well as his other statements and comments. Ivan's conscience is clear. The Motherland can be proud of such commanders. The army was and remains out of politics, ”Turchak said.
In the audio message in question, General Popov said that he was removed from command after he made claims "at the very top" and "outlined all the problematic issues" of the army. According to Popov, Sergei Shoigu's order to remove him "was concocted in one light day." In particular, he said:
“I also raised a number of other problems, expressed it at the highest level – frankly, extremely harshly. In this regard, apparently, the senior commanders felt some kind of danger in me and quickly concocted an order from the Minister of Defense in one light day, took me out of the location and got rid of me. As many commanders of the regiments of the division said today, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment.
The day before, on July 11, a Storm Shadow missile flew into the Berdyansk hotel "Dune", where, presumably, the command headquarters of the Russian 58th Army was located, resulting in the death of Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov. A number of Telegram channels reported that Tsokov died by accident, and Major General Ivan Popov was supposed to be the real target – allegedly in this way the command of the RF Armed Forces gets rid of objectionable ones, allegedly "merging" the coordinates of the headquarters to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.