Alexander Lapin (58) is – or was, nobody knows exactly – a Russian Colonel General. He has been heavily criticized for the performance of his troops, including by Putin’s “bloodhound” and newly appointed Colonel General Ramzan Kadyrov (46) and the founder and financier of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin (61).
Western officials reported Thursday that hapless Colonel General Lapin, who commanded the largest of Russia’s five military districts and was one of Putin’s most important generals in the war in Ukraine, had been fired from the Kremlin. According to the Ukrainian news agency Ura.ru, Lapin is only taking a three-week break. The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the speculation.
However, the Russian newspaper Kommersant quotes the press service of the Central Military District in Yekaterinburg as confirming that Lapin has been replaced, at least temporarily, by his deputy, Major General Alexander Linkov. Little is known about Linkow. Before that, however, he was the head of the Organization and Mobilization Department of the Central Military District, as the online medium Ukrayinska Pravda writes.
Russia fires commander after commander
With Lapin’s departure, Russia is trying to shift responsibility for the poor performance of its invading forces in Ukraine to its commanders. At least that’s what the British secret service suspects. Lapins’ eviction is just one more proof of that. “If confirmed, it ties in with a series of layoffs of top Russian commanders since the invasion began in February 2022,” the British Ministry of Defense’s daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine said on Sunday. “This is partly an attempt to shield the Russian leadership domestically and shift the blame,” the statement continued.
Russia has made sweeping changes to its military leadership in the past two months as Ukrainian forces recaptured thousands of square kilometers in the northeast, east and south from Russian occupation.
“Butcher of Mariupol” creates new logistics
In October, Air Force General Sergei Surovikin, 56, became commander-in-chief of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, shortly after the commanders of the eastern and western military districts were fired. In September, the Deputy Defense Minister in charge of logistics, General Dmitri Bulgakov (68), was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mitsintsev (59), known as the “Butcher of Mariupol”. He is accused by the European Union of organizing the siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol early in the conflict, which killed thousands of civilians.
In August, the state-run RIA news agency reported that the Black Sea Fleet commander had been fired after a series of humiliations, including the sinking of his flagship and the loss of eight fighter jets in an attack on a Russian base in Crimea. General Lapin was the last senior commander to lead Russian troops across the Ukrainian border in February and still be in office. (chs)