Ukraine demands that the soldiers trapped in Mariupol be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war. Ukrainian soldiers deliver a heavy blow: they destroy the Russian pontoon bridge. There are apparently hundreds dead.
Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov is said to have fallen out of favor with Putin and was dishonorably discharged. That’s what the military adviser to Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in a YouTube interview with a Russian dissident and lawyer.
“According to preliminary information, Gerasimov has been de facto suspended. They decide whether or not to give him time to put things right,” Arestovych said.
A second top general was also said to have been fired by Putin, Arestovych continued: “The commander of the Western Military District’s First Tank Army, Lieutenant General Sergei Kisel, was also arrested and released after the First Tank Army was defeated near Kharkiv.
Gerasimov failed to show up for the Victory Day parade in Moscow on Monday, to which he was widely expected.
