War in Ukraine: Russian official in occupied area launches ‘personified attack’ on Kremlin defence minister

A Russian-installed official in an occupied region of Ukraine said the Russian defence minister should consider killing himself because of his army’s failures in Ukraine.

In an unusual display of negativity towards the Kremlin, Kirill Stremousov, Russia’s “deputy governor” of the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, said Sergei Shoigu was responsible for the situation of the invasion, in which Russian troops have been forced to retreat from two frontline positions in recent days.

He said: “Many people are saying that as an officer, the defence minister could simply shoot himself for being the one who let things get to this state.”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst, told The New York Times the comments – combined with a number of other dissenting remarks by officials in recent days – was the first “personified attack” within the regime.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigui, pictured in August.

“We’re seeing for the first time a personified attack of one against the other within the regime,” said Ms Stanovaya, the founder of R.Politik, a political analysis firm. “This is a rather dangerous situation for [president Vladimir] Putin because no one is in control of it.”

This comes as the death toll from an attack on Thursday on a residential block in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has risen to 11.

With its army suffering a series of battlefield defeats in recent weeks, Russia has been deploying Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian targets.

The unmanned, disposable “kamikaze drones” are cheaper and less sophisticated than missiles, but have proved effective at causing damage to targets on the ground.

Zaporizhzhia is one of the four regions of Ukraine that Mr Putin has illegally claimed as Russian territory. The region is home to a sprawling nuclear power plant under Russian occupation while the city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's ability to capture and put back into service Russian tanks and other equipment continues to be an important factor in its forces' push to repel the invasion.

Ukrainian forces have captured at least 440 tanks and about 650 armoured vehicles since the start of the war, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Friday.