Lieutenant-General Valery Balan was fired from the post of Deputy Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). He had been on the job since 2019.
Firing Russian generals started in March
This is a continuation of a Putin-directed purge of the top brass that began in March. The Moscow crackdown also includes Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence personnel and other intelligence agency managers who have been detained or disappeared.
On March 9th, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense reported that eight Russian generals had been replaced due to the lack of progress in Ukraine. At the same time, 5th Service Head Sergey Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh were placed under house arrest.
From the onset of the invasion, hundreds of Russian soldiers have deserted their posts since the invasion.
Top officer losses unprecedented
The losses in military equipment and soldiers killed continue to rise. And Putin would like to turn the “special military operation” in Ukraine around.
