The Russian parliament will consider summoning Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for questioning in a closed session, the newspaper "Kommersant" (kommersant) quoted senior Russian parliamentarian Sergei Mironov as saying on Thursday.
It is not uncommon for the House of Representatives (Doma) to summon the defense minister to provide explanations, but the Russian forces were publicly criticized by military commentators this week after losing control of large parts of the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv to a lightning advance by Ukrainian forces.
Mironov, a staunch supporter of Russia's war on Ukraine and head of the small pro-Kremlin "Russia Only" party, was quoted as saying that the State Duma would discuss the matter next Monday.
And Mironov had said in a tweet - yesterday, Wednesday - that his party had proposed holding a meeting with Shoigu "so that the deputies could talk to him behind closed doors and ask all the questions that concern us and the citizens."
The Ukrainian forces have recovered more than 4,000 square kilometers from the Russian forces in the east of the country during the past days.
The rapid fall of the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region is the worst military loss for Russia since its forces were forced to withdraw from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, last March.