Russian Telegram channels report soldier and military blogger Andrey Morozov died by suicide after harassment by commanders

Multiple Russian pro-war Telegram channels have reported that Andrey Morozov, a Russian soldier who runs a popular Telegram channel and goes by the pseudonym Murz, has died by suicide.

Lawyer Maxim Pashkov, who said he spoke to Morozov the previous night, reported that the military blogger shot himself.

On Wednesday morning, Morozov published a series of posts on his channel in which he said that he was going to shoot himself and asked his readers “not to be sad” about his death. He asked to be buried in the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic.”

Morozov wrote that on February 20, his superiors forced him to delete a post from his channel. According to BBC Russian, this likely refers to a post in which Morozov said that the Russian army lost 16,000 soldiers and 300 armored vehicles during the battle for control of the village of Avdiivka. The BBC noted that the post drew fierce criticism from Russian propogandists, who accused the blogger of “slandering the Russian Defense Ministry.” According to Morozov’s final messages, the order from his superiors was issued under pressure from the “political prostitutes led by [propagandist] Vladimir Solovyov.”

Morozov also published his “will,” along with a statement addressed to Russia’s chief military prosecutor about the severe shortage of weapons, manpower, and medical care at the front.