“The FSB finally got their teeth in the defence ministry and general staff,” said Capt John Foreman, the UK’s former defence attache to Moscow, who said he believed the arrests could continue after “Putin’s patience had finally snapped”.

“Shoigu and Gerasimov provided a buffer, but now Putin decided he had to do something,” he said. “Shoigu kept the FSB largely away from the ministry throughout his tenure, there were very few arrests. Once the FSB has their teeth in you, who knows how far they will go.”

Throughout the war in Ukraine, Shoigu and Gerasimov have come under fire from pro-war advocates for the military’s setbacks and their failure to eradicate pervasive corruption within the armed forces. Last summer, this dissatisfaction reached its peak when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, initiated an unsuccessful rebellion against the military’s leaders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that he fired all regional military recruitment bosses amid reports of corruption.

The dismissed officials will be replaced by soldiers who have been on the front lines or who have been hurt in combat, as “they can be entrusted with this recruitment system,” Zelenskyy said.

“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in times of war constitutes high treason,” he added, as Ukraine digs in against a Russian offensive in the northeast while also trying to reclaim territory captured by Moscow’s invading forces in the country’s south and east.

​​​​​​​