Prominent Russian military blogger found dead under pressure from official Russian propaganda
3:22 PM EST, February 22, 2024
Other Russian "Z channels" blogs and figures, such as Igor Strelkov's wife, Miroslawa Reginis, and lawyer Maksym Paszkov, confirmed the suicide news. "Z" channels or bloggers refer to those who report the war on the Russian Federation side.
Fighting against ukraine
The BBC reiterates that they cannot independently verify this information. Morozov initially was in combat against Ukraine as part of the Donbas separatists, then later joined the Russian army while also maintaining a war blog.
Morozov's field of expertise included communication and military equipment, and his proficiency was acknowledged by both allies and opponents. His work was described as "quite professional and successful." His death has been deemed a "great loss for the Russian forces". Morozov's Telegram account had amassed a following of 100,000. "His last posts on the channel were a suicide note and a will," according to the BBC.
Morozov reached out to the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, expressing his alarm over the "painful weaponry shortages, vast losses, lack of troop rotation and medical assistance in his unit, and disregard and indifference from the military command".
Significant Russian losses at Avdiivka
Earlier, Morozov posted about Avdiivka's occupation by Russian troops, though it was later deleted. He wrote about how the capture of the city resulted in 16 thousand irreversible casualties and approximately 300 destroyed armored vehicles for the Russian side.
This claim coincided with reports of Kyiv suffering between 6 to 7 thousand military casualties.
Targeted by propagandists
Afterwards, Morozov became a target for several Russian propagandists. One described him as "another regressive scumbag, propagating false claims and defaming the Russian Federation's Ministry of Defence".
Morozov stated he was removed from his unit for revealing the truth. His removal was suspected to be due to an attack and subsequent pressure applied on Morozov's commanders, allegedly by leading Kremlin propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov.
