Vladimir Putin has chosen a new general to lead the war in Ukraine, according to a US official and a European official. After failing to take the city of Kyiv, the Russian military has changed its plans.
The officials told CNN Army Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, has been named theatre commander of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine A new theatre commander with a lot of combat experience could help make an assault on the Donbas region more coordinated than one on many fronts.
As soon as Vladimir Putin sent troops to Syria last September, Dvornikov, 60, was in charge of Russia’s military operations there. Dvornikov was in charge of Russia’s military operations there for a long time. Dvornikov was in charge of Russian planes in Syria from September 2015 to June 2016. During this time, Russian planes helped the Assad regime and its allies lay siege to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, bombing densely populated neighbourhoods and killing many civilians. There was a big fight in December 2016. The city was taken by Syrian government forces.
As in Ukraine, Russian forces have used a similar heavy-handed approach in some parts of the country. They have hit residential buildings in major cities and demolished much of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Russia’s generals may want to show President Putin some tangible progress on the battlefield before Victory Day, which is May 9, when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany and traditionally holds a parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
The European official described it as a “self-imposed deadline,” that could lead the Russians to make additional mistakes.
But it could also lead Russian forces to do more bad things, like what is said to have happened in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha when it was under Russian control. “The stench of these war crimes is going to hang over these Russian armed forces for many years,” the official said.
Former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Roderic Lyne told Sky News on Saturday Moscow has appointed a new general with a “pretty savage track record in Syria to try to at least gain some territory in Donetsk that Putin could present as a victory.”
Making a new overall commander for Russia’s war in Ukraine may be a way to make the strategy more consistent. CNN had said that Russia didn’t have a general commander for its operations in Ukraine, which means that units from different Russian military districts have been operating without coordination and sometimes at odds with each other, two US defence officials say.
The US thinks Putin will name a general who has been in charge of Russian forces in Ukraine’s south because that is where the Russians have taken and held more land than in the north, where the Russians recently withdrew.
Friday, Ukraine’s General Staff said it had finished withdrawing Russian forces from the north of the country. At the same time, it said it was still building up forces in the country’s east.
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