A prominent pro-Russian military blogger died of a reported suicide in the midst of a Russian state media backlash against his report that Russia lost 16,000 troops in the recent conquest of a Ukrainian city.

“I’ll shoot myself if no one dares to take on this trivial matter,” Russian soldier and blogger Andrei “Murz” Morozov wrote in an apparent suicide note, according to an unofficial translation, addressed to his commander. “And they will give you tanks and copters. From February 21, 2024 you can safely tell everyone who calls you that I do not serve, and there are no problems with me.”