Russian nationalists called for a general to be shot, arguing 'stupidity' exposed troops to deadly Ukrainian artillery

• Russian nationalists blamed military leaders after a shocking report said a large number of troops was killed.
• Rumored casualties are as high as 200 Russians but could not be independently assessed.

Russian commentators sharply criticized military leaders after a shocking report said a large Russian force was struck at a position close to the front and within range of Ukraine's artillery.

Some reports put the number of dead as high as 100 troops and the total casualties as high as 200, making the reported incident in the city of Kreminna potentially one of the more deadly strikes by Ukraine in the nearly 16-month war.

The casualty figures from the incident behind Russian lines could not be independently assessed, but reactions in the information space showed Russian nationalists quickly turning on military leaders.

"If by the middle of the second year of the war there are commanders that carry columns to the front and build personnel in one big pile, and then wait for the enemy artillery to strike, then such commanders must be shot before the formation, even if they are colonels or even generals," wrote Russian blogger Sergey Kolyasnikov on Wednesday. "The Armed Forces of Ukraine have no merit in this war. We are at war with our own stupidity and sloppiness."

Kreminna, in the Russian-occupied eastern region of Luhansk, is likely within the roughly 15-mile range of Ukraine's 155mm artillery, as well as longer range precision weapons like HIMARS and Storm Shadow.

Accounts differed on why the Russian soldiers had been massed, with some suggesting it was to load supplies and weapons and others saying it was to await a general's pep talk before a dangerous mission, as a conversation monitored by Rob Lee, an expert on the Russian military with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said.

Many Russian milbloggers, who are stridently critical of their Ministry of Defense, singled out a Russian officer who had been previously condemned for a disastrous loss of as many as 300 naval infantry troops in a botched offensive in November. That officer, Zurab Akhmedov, was later promoted and is now a major general. Russian milbloggers shared a photo of him in a dress uniform in response to the reports Wednesday.

It wasn't clear if the latest casualties also included troops from the naval infantry that Akhmedov had led before commanding a Russian field army.

Russian generals and colonels have previously been accused of incompetence that led to military disasters. A Ukrainian New Year's strike led to as many as 400 deaths and fueled outrage that Russian officers had bivouacked troops within range of the GPS-guided HIMARS rockets. Signs of secondary explosions suggested an ammunition depot was nearby as Insider reported at the time.

Russian officials, however, faulted the troops themselves for using their cell phones.