AFTER SERIES OF SETBACKS, RUSSIA NAMES NEW UKRAINE WAR COMMANDER

Sat 08 October 2022:

Russia has named a new general to head the offensive in the country Ukraine after suffering repeated setbacks to its military forces.
General Sergey Surovikin, to use the Kremlin term for the offensive, was reportedly appointed as the “commander of the Joint Grouping of Forces in the areas of the special military operation,” according to the Russian defense ministry.

Ukraine was invaded by Russia on February 24. Russian forces were forced to retreat in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive after making consistent territorial gains in the early months of the conflict.

Surovikin, 55, a native of Novosibirsk, Siberia, has combat experience from the wars in Tajikistan and Chechnya in the 1990s as well as more recent conflicts in Syria, where Moscow intervened in 2015 on behalf of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Until now Surovikin led the “South” forces in Ukraine, according to a defence ministry report in July.

The name of his predecessor has never been officially revealed, but some Russian media said it was General Alexander Dvornikov — also a general of the Second Chechen War and Russian commander in Syria.

Russian setbacks in Ukraine have led to growing criticism of senior leadership. The criticism has also come from the elite members in Russian political and military spheres.

In early September, Russian troops were forced to leave much of the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces took control of thousands of square kilometers of territory. Russian troops also lost territory in southern Kherson and the Lyman transport hub in eastern Ukraine.

Following the setbacks, there was increased criticism of the military leadership, including from the elite.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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