Putin ‘Dismisses Commander’ After Persistent Ukrainian Raids Across Dnipro River

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly dismissed the commander in charge of the Russian “Dnepr” Grouping of Forces, after Ukrainian forces last week crossed the Dnipro River and dug in, establishing a bridgehead.

The Kremlin has not commented on the reports but one Russian milblogger said Colonel General Oleg Makarevich was replaced due to a “discrepancy” between reports on the situation that came from military intelligence and that being reported “through the command of the Dnepr group.”

Another said his dismissal may have been due to his “extreme lack of initiative of the command in this direction, ignoring the situation on the ground and sweeping what is happening under the carpet.”

They added: “This attitude resulted in constant enemy landings on the bank of the [Dnipro] under our control, consolidating it in some positions and conducting sabotage raids inland.”

As Kyiv Post reported last week, Ukrainian Marines were, according to reports, digging in newly captured positions on the mostly Russian-held east side of the Dnipro River, with Kremlin-associated sources confirming that the crossings took place, but vowing Russian air strikes and counterattacks would destroy the bridgeheads.

Ukrainian amphibious troops had over 24 hours occupied the village of Krynky, some 1.7 kilometers (~1 mile) inland from the Dnipro in Ukraine’s Kherson Region, both Russian and Ukrainian military information platforms said.

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Russian troops were thin on the ground in the area, so the Kremlin was hitting the 20-man Ukrainian detachment in Krynky with bombs and shells, pro-Moscow sources said.

Ukrainian military bloggers citing accounts from Marines on the ground said Kyiv troops now were holding positions successfully around three communities on the left bank of the southern flowing Dnipro River: Krynky, Pidstepne and Pishchanivka.

According to previous Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) reports, Ukrainian commandos have operated on the Dnipro River left bank since at least May, at times ambushing Russian troops and convoys.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, Makarevich’s reported dismissal “indicates that the Kremlin or the Russian military command may be sufficiently worried and skeptical of his ability to repel recent larger-than-usual Ukrainian ground operations in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast.”

Another milbogger said Makarevich had been replaced by Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky.

Teplinsky made headlines in August when the Kremlin had to scramble to remove a video posted online by its own defense ministry in which he revealed the number of soldiers in an elite unit wounded during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the video, Teplinsky said that 8,500 of Russia’s Airborne Forces (VDV) paratroopers have been wounded since February of last year.