Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms army, which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia, said in a voice message that he had been fired after he brought up problems on the battlefield, including the lack of counter-battery fire as well as deaths and injuries the army was suffering from Ukrainian attacks.
Popov's emotional address was published late on Wednesday by Andrey Gurulyov, a retired Russian colonel general and Duma deputy.
It was not clear when Popov had recorded the message or its intended recipients.
Without naming them, Popov appeared to attack the head of the army, Valery Gerasimov, and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, two of the country's most powerful military men, accusing them of stabbing the country in the back.
"As many commanders of regiments and divisions said today, our army was not broken through the front, but our most senior commander hit us in the back, thus treacherously beheading the army in the most difficult period," Popov said.
Popov added that he faced a choice with his superiors "to keep quiet and be a coward or to say it the way it is ... Due to this, the seniors likely felt some danger in me and instantly, in one day, put together an order to the minister of defence and got rid of me."
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