Around ten and a half months after the start of the war, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov as the new commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine. The previous commander, Sergei Surovikin, who only took over the post last October, should become Gerasimov’s deputy, the ministry said in Moscow on Wednesday.
Shoigu also appointed two other deputies, General Oleg Salyukov and Colonel-General Alexei Kim. Moscow justified the realignment with an “extension of tasks” and the “need” for “closer interaction” between the troops and spoke of an “increase in the management level of the special operations”.
Russian observers – including the political scientist Yekaterina Schulman – immediately pointed out the conspicuously short tenure of Surovikin at the head of the Russian troops in Ukraine.
Political scientist Abbas Galljamov also commented on General Alexander Lapin, who was only appointed Chief of Staff of the Army Troops on Tuesday: “Yesterday Lapin, today Gerasimov and Surovikin. All these reshuffles of the same people from one chair to the next, taking place at the height of the fighting, testify to everything possible – but not that “everything is going according to plan”.
Surovikin recommended withdrawal from Kherson
Surovikin, who is considered a particularly unscrupulous general in Russia, was deployed in early October after a series of Russian defeats. He was already notorious for attacking civilian targets to weaken his opponents when he was deployed in Syria. After his appointment, attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure became an integral part of Russian warfare.
In early November, Surovikin proposed and organized the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, in a major blow to the Kremlin. Since then, the front line has mostly stabilized, except in the area around the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region. There, the Russian army and the Wagner mercenaries have been trying to conquer the city of Bakhmut for months. (dpa / AFP)
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