LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Russia has sacked the commander of its Eastern Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Chaiko, Russian news site RBC reported on Friday.
This is the latest senior brass reshuffle following a series of military setbacks in Ukraine.
RBC, citing publicly available state records, said Lt. Gen. Rustam Muradov had been appointed head of the Eastern Military District, which includes troops based in Russia’s Far East, although a large part of its personnel is currently deployed in Ukraine.
Rustam Muradov, who was sanctioned by the European Union in February, previously served in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and commanded Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Although the leader of Dagestan, Rustam Muradov’s native region, congratulated him on his appointment, neither the Kremlin nor the Ministry of Defense immediately confirmed this decision.
On Monday, RBC reported that the commander of the Western Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlyov, had been replaced. Russia suffered heavy losses in northeastern Ukraine last month as Ukrainian forces recaptured the strategic center of Lyman in the Donetsk region.
In September, the deputy defense minister in charge of logistics, General Dmitry Bulgakov, was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev.
In August, the state-run RIA news agency reported that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet had been sacked after a series of humiliations, including the sinking of his main warship and the loss of eight aircraft during an attack on a Russian base in Crimea.
(Reuters report, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Matthieu Protard)