While his soldiers are suffering extreme losses in Ukraine, the Russian defense minister has been absent for a long time. According to official information, Sergei Shoigu is now inspecting the front again. However, the last such report turned out to be a staging far removed from the fighting.
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reportedly inspected the front in the eastern Ukrainian war zone. According to official information, Shoigu listened to the situation report at an advanced command point in the Donbass region and awarded soldiers. The ministry announced this on its Telegram channel. "The awards are earned and earned, you fight properly. We have a lot of work ahead of us," Shoigu said during the ceremony.
Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine more than a year ago. However, visits from the Moscow leadership to the front are rare - in contrast to the Ukrainian side. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zalushnyi or the head of the land forces, Olexander Syrskyi, also appear regularly on contested front sections like Bakhmut. The commander of the Ukrainian special forces, Viktor Chorenko, recently visited his soldiers in Bakhmut, which is now almost completely surrounded by Russian units.
The Russian Defense Ministry last reported on a visit to the front by Shoigu in mid-January, before that by two more in December. However, after evaluating the videos, independent analysts came to the conclusion that the minister was 80 kilometers from the front during the visits. In the first phase of the war, Shoigu almost completely disappeared, according to official sources because of a heart attack. So far, nothing is known about a trip by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion, to the war zone.
Shoigu, who has little publicity, is also being put under pressure by critics in Russia. In contrast to the defense minister, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, repeatedly portrayed his fighters effectively on camera. The oligarch presents himself and his private army as pillars of the Russian invasion, while blaming the Russian army leadership for serious crimes, including treason.
