Shoigu appointed the head of the General Staff commander of the united group of troops

The chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, has been appointed commander of the joint group of troops in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry reports.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed General of the Army Sergei Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces General of the Army Oleg Salyukov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Colonel-General Alexei Kim as Gerasimov's deputies.

The Ministry of Defense reported that it was about raising the level of leadership of the military operation in Ukraine, and explained this decision by expanding the scale of the tasks being solved during its implementation, the need to organize closer interaction of the armed forces and improving the quality of troop support and the effectiveness of the management of groups of troops.

Valery Gerasimov has been the head of the General Staff since 2012. Before that, he commanded the troops of the Leningrad and then the Moscow military districts. In 2001-2003, Gerasimov commanded the 58th Army of the North Caucasus Military District, which was then fighting in Chechnya.

For the first time, the Ministry of Defense announced the post of commander of the joint group of troops on October 8 last year. Then this position was taken by Surovikin, who had previously commanded the Southern Group of troops operating in Ukraine.

During Surovikin's leadership of the united group, the Russian Aerospace Forces repeatedly struck at the critical infrastructure of Ukraine. Also, at his suggestion, it was decided to withdraw troops from the right bank of the Dnieper in the area of Kherson and Berislav.