The commander of the 58th army operating in the Zaporozhye direction was suspended due to harsh statements about problems in the Russian army.
According to Popov, the order to remove him was drawn up in one day for an extremely tough report on the situation at the front, on the absence of counter-battery combat, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations, as well as death and injury from enemy artillery:
In this regard, the senior commanders, apparently, felt some kind of danger in me and quickly, in one day, concocted an order, the Minister of Defense signed the order and got rid of me. As many commanders of regiments and divisions said today, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, our senior commander hit our army from the rear. Treacherously and vilely decapitating our army at the most difficult moment.
Colonel Ivan Popov was promoted to general after Ukrainian troops forced the Russian army to retreat from the Kharkiv region.
