The withdrawal of Russian troops from the strategically important town of Lyman in eastern Ukraine has prompted rare public criticism of the military’s top brass by prominent Russian figures and influential social media accounts. But it’s not opposition or anti-war voices who are leading this chorus of discontent, it’s pro-war voices who are unhappy with the way in which the defence ministry is conducting its war in Ukraine. One of the first to react to the loss of Lyman was Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Russia’s Chechnya Republic and a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin. In a Telegram post on 1 October, he singled out General Alexander Lapin, commander of Russia’s Central Military District, and senior officers at the Russian General Staff for the loss. “Were it up to me, I would have demoted Lapin to private, stripped him of his awards, given him an assault rifle and sent him to the front to wash away his shame with blood,” he declared in his post, which has been viewed more than 7.6m times.(BBC)…[+]