Dubai: On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov to oversee the military campaign in Ukraine, the latest reshuffle in Moscow's military leadership.
Gerasimov, like Shoigu, has come under fire from Russia's hawkish military bloggers for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow's failure to secure victory in a campaign that the Kremlin expected to be over in a matter of weeks.
The defence ministry said in a statement that Shoigu had appointed Gerasimov as commander of the combined forces group for the "special military operation" in Ukraine. It is the highest rank among Russia's battlefield generals.
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Following a series of counter-offensives by Ukrainian forces that turned the tide of the conflict, Russia placed Sergey Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, in overall command of Ukraine operations last October.
Surovikin will now continue to serve as Gerasimov's deputy, according to the defence ministry.
The changes are intended to improve the effectiveness of military operations in Ukraine, according to the statement, which comes more than ten months into a campaign that has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides as well as Ukrainian civilians.
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"The increase in the level of leadership of the special military operation is related to the expansion in the scale of tasks... the need to organise closer contact between different branches of the armed forces and improve the quality... and effectiveness of Russian force management," the ministry statement said.
Pro-war commentators in Russia were unimpressed. "The sum does not change simply by changing the locations of its parts," wrote Rybar, a prominent military blogger who posts on the Telegram messaging app.
He claimed Surovikin, a veteran of Russian campaigns in Chechnya and Syria, was being blamed for a string of recent Russian military failures, including a New Year's Eve Ukrainian attack on a Russian barracks in Makiivka that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, including conscripts.
Military analyst Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, stated on Twitter that Gerasimov's appointment reaffirmed the defence ministry's role in the war's conduct.
"I don't believe this is due to Surovikin's failure. It is entirely possible that this was motivated by political considerations. Surovikin, as the unified commander in Ukraine, was growing in power and was likely bypassing Shoigu/Gerasimov when speaking with Putin," Lee said.
On Telegram, political analyst Abbas Gallyamov noted that the move followed the transfer of another top general, Alexander Lapin, to the role of chief of land forces on Tuesday.
"All this moving of the same people from one chair to another at the height of military hostilities may say whatever you want, but it does not mean that 'everything is going according to plan,'" Gallyamov said.
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On Wednesday, Russian and Ukrainian forces clashed over the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, a stepping stone in Moscow's push to take control of the entire Donbas region. The Russians appeared to be in the lead.