Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Army General Valery Gerasimov has been appointed commander of the joint troop group as part of Russia’s military special operations in Ukraine.
Defense Ministry Telegram channel, “Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has been appointed Commander of the Joint Troop Group (Forces).”
The Commander-in-Chief of the Air-Space Forces, Army General Sergei Surovikin, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Ground Forces, General Oleg Salyukov, and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Colonel General Alexei Kim, became his. deputies.
“Expanding the scale of the task”
The military department said that the personnel changes are associated with the “expansion of the scale” of the tasks solved during the special operation in Ukraine. And also to raise the level of leadership – the message states that this is a necessary step “to organize closer interaction between branches and branches of the Armed Forces, as well as to improve the quality of all types of support and the effectiveness of command control of troop groups.”
On January 9, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army General Sergei Surovikin changed combat tactics. New tactics, particularly the “ability to accept mistakes and learn from them,” have helped the Russian military act more effectively, he said.
According to Gurulev, the partial mobilization carried out in Russia also brought important changes. There are new units and subunits that can change the course of hostilities.
“Our intelligence began to work better not without the help of our civil society, but because of the saturation of intelligence tools. Progress unfolded in space, this is hardly advertised. Special forces work differently, they take care of their business, certainly not infantry. Inside the country, counterintelligence does not have enough power, the issue of creating SMERSH today is extremely relevant for detecting all the traitors, sleeping intelligence officers in the new regions of Russia, ”- spoke he is.
Surovikin’s date
The Department of Defense first announced the post of joint troop group commander on October 8, 2022. Surovikin, who previously commanded the Southern Group of Forces operating in Ukraine, was appointed to the post.
Surovikin led the group for three months. During this period, the energy system of Ukraine was actively attacked, but this did not lead to its complete collapse. Also, it was Surovikin who made the “difficult decision” to regroup the Russian troops on the left bank of the Dnieper and withdraw from Kherson.
Gerasimov’s way
Gerasimov graduated from the Kazan Suvorov Military School, participated in the wars on the territory of Chechnya in 2001-2003.
In December 2007 he was appointed commander of the Leningrad Military District, and in February 2009 he became the commander of the Moscow Military District.
In 2010, in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. He served as Chief of the General Staff in 2012.
Earlier, RBC, citing sources knowledgeableCommanding the “Center” group of Russian troops in Ukraine, Colonel General Alexander Lapin was appointed Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces. Lapin has recently been actively criticized by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and the founder of Wagner, Evgeny Prigozhin.