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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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The Russian commander known as "the Butcher of Mariupol" has been removed from his position, according to a Russian war correspondent.
Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev has garnered a reputation for ruthless brutality in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He is particularly associated with the bombardment of the southern port city of Mariupol, which Moscow claimed in May 2022.
Mizintsev was appointed deputy defense minister for logistics in late September 2022, state media reported. The "butcher will build a new slaughterhouse," Ukraine's defense ministry tweeted as the news broke.
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He has now been "fired" from his position, according to a Telegram post from Alexander Sladkov, a correspondent for the state-run newspaper Izvestia.
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"Mikhail Mizintsev has had an interesting fate this year," Sladkov wrote on Thursday, describing the commander as a "friend."
He added that Mizintsev had "had no direct relation to the storming of the city" of Mariupol.
In a follow-up post, Sladkov said Alexei Kuzmenkov, reportedly the deputy head of Russia's National Guard, would replace Mizintsev in the logistics role.
The Russian military blogger, WarGonzo, also posted on Telegram about Mizintsev's dismissal. The account is run by Semyon Pegov, a Kremlin-aligned Russian journalist described by NATO as a "one-man band" who is "embedded with forces at the front, and while traditionally loyal to the regime, has become close to ordinary soldiers." He has "seemingly unrivaled access to high-level connections, and an uncanny ability to lead the agenda," according to a NATO Defense College research paper from March 2023.
Before taking the defense ministry role, Mizintsev had been head of the National Defense Management Center since December 2014.
On March 31, 2022, he was sanctioned by the British government for his "reprehensible" actions in Syria and Ukraine.
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"Mizintsev is the Chief of the National Defence Command and Control Centre, where all Russian military operations are planned and controlled worldwide," the U.K. government said at the time.
"Mizintsev is known for using reprehensible tactics, including shelling civilian centres in both Aleppo in 2015-16 and now in Mariupol—where atrocities are being perpetuated against Ukrainian people."
Mizintsev was born in 1962, according to the Kremlin-backed Tass news agency, and graduated from the Kalinin Suvorov Military School in 1980.
Back in April 2022, Mizintsev was a little-known figure who was largely "obscure" and limited to "effectively administrative" roles in Russia's military, The Washington Post reported at the time. In the initial months of all-out war in Ukraine, the city of Mariupol, from which Mizintsev earned his nickname, endured heavy bombardment and fatal strikes such as on a theater and a maternity hospital in the now-captured city.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.
Update 04/27/23 at 7.30 a.m. ET and 05/02/2023: This article was updated with additional information.
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