• Sergei Surovikin The 'ice general' who devastated Syria makes his debut in the Ukraine war

  • Ukraine The alleged attack on the chief of the General Staff Valeri Gerasimov in Izium

Russia replaced this Wednesday the commander of the military forces that have been fighting in Ukraine since February 2022, a position that will be assumed by

Valeri Guerasimov, current chief of the General Staff

of the Russian Army.

Gerasimov, 67, takes over from General Sergei Surovikin, who was the one who recommended the

Russian withdrawal from the north

of the Ukrainian region of Kherson in November, considered the worst setback suffered by Russian troops in the conflict.

By order of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Surovikin will now serve as

deputy head of the joint group

of troops in the area of ​​the "special military operation".

The reason for the appointment of Gerasimov is "the

expansion of the magnitude of the objectives to be met

and the need to organize closer cooperation between the different troops of the Russian Army."

In addition, the arrival of Gerasimov to the position seeks to improve the

quality of supplies

and the effectiveness of the command of the group of forces.

Surovikin, who has combat experience in Syria, is already head of the Air Force.

The other deputy chief of the Russian forces in Ukraine will be

Oleg Saliukov, commander of the Army

, and Alexei Kim, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Since the capture of the town of Lisichansk at the beginning of July last year, the Russian Army has suffered

several setbacks, such as the withdrawal from Kherson

, including the regional capital, and from part of the Kharkov region.

Subsequently, Shoigu announced an urgent reform of the Army that included increasing the number of men to a million and a half, almost half of them professional soldiers.

Right now, Russian troops and units of the Wagner private military company are fighting in

the streets of the town of Soledar

, in the Donetsk region.

The conquest of that stronghold would not only be Russia's first major victory in more than half a year, but would

pave the way for attacking Bakhmut,

a major crossroads leading to Ukraine's main Donbas strongholds.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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