The Ministry of Defense has again replaced the commander of the offensive in Ukraine by appointing General Valéri Guerassimov, the chief of staff of the armies. Valéri Guerassimov is appointed to replace Sergei Surovikin, who will have directed operations for barely three months.
Russia again replaced the commander of its offensive in Ukraine on Wednesday, this time appointing General Valéri Guerassimov, the Chief of the Defense Staff, the Ministry of Defense announced. In a press release, the ministry declared that Valéri Guerassimov became “commander of the combined group of troops” deployed in Ukraine, replacing Sergei Surovikin who will have led the operations for barely three months.
“The increase in the level of command of the special operation (in Ukraine) is linked to an expansion of the scope of the missions to be performed, the need to conduct closer interaction between the components of the armed forces”, explained the ministry. He specifies that Valéri Guerassimov will have Generals Sergei Surovikin, Oleg Salioukov and Alexei Kim as assistants.
Appointed commander of troops in Ukraine in October
Reputed to be implacable, Sergei Surovikin was appointed commander of troops in Ukraine in October to redress the situation of the Russian army which was suffering setbacks in the face of Ukrainian offensives in the regions of Kharkiv (northeast) and Kherson (south). It was Sergei Surovikin in particular who proposed and organized the withdrawal of Russian forces from the city of Kherson in early November, a major setback for the Kremlin.
Since then, the front has generally stabilized, except in the Bakhmout area, in the Donetsk region (east), a city that the Russian army and the paramilitary group Wagner have been trying to conquer for months. Faced with these difficulties on the ground, Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists and a campaign to bomb Ukrainian energy infrastructure.