Russian blogger dies after reporting army losses in eastern Ukraine
- 21 February, 06:58
A prominent Russian war blogger has died of suicide after making a post revealing Russia’s heavy losses in east of Ukraine.
Andrey Morozov, known as Murz, died on Tuesday after announcing his suicide to his 120,000 followers on Telegram. In the post he said he had been ordered by his superiors under a pressure from the “political prostitutes led by propagandist Vladimir Solovyov” to delete a post about Russia’s heavy losses during the capture of frontline city of Avdiivka that fell to Russia last week.
He said he was going to shoot himself and asked his followers “not to be sad” about his death. The blogger also expressed his wish to be buried in the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic” in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas.
In a post on Sunday, Morozov wrote that the Russian army lost 16,000 soldiers as well as 300 pieces of armour during its months-long capture of Avdiivka. The post drew heavy criticism from Russian media propagandists who accused Morozov of “slandering the Russian defence ministry”. The blogger also published a list of problems within the Russian army, including shortage of weapons and manpower and lack of medical care for soldiers in the frontline.
Morozov was an ultra-nationalist who fought alongside Russian-backed separatist in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region back in 2014. He was also involved in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russian authorities are sensitive about reports about military operations in Ukraine and crack down on voices revealing the losses within the army. Although the Kremlin hides its casualty toll in the war in Ukraine, Western sources claim Russia’s losses so far amont to 315,000 dead and injured troops.
