MOSCOW (Archyde.com) – The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday appointed Air Force and Space Commander-in-Chief Sergei Slovikhin, 55, as commander-in-chief to lead military operations in Ukraine. He will be the third military officer appointed in the past week.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have been forced to withdraw from Ukrainian forces in northeastern and southern Ukraine. This week, it was reported that commanders of two of the army’s five districts had been sacked.
The defense ministry has not yet released the name of the commander-in-chief, and it is unclear who Slovikin’s predecessor was.
In April, two months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, British intelligence officials said General Alexander Dvornikov had been appointed.
Slovikin has been commander of the Air Force and Space Forces since 2017. He commanded the Chechen garrison during the 2004 military intervention in Chechnya, according to the Ministry of Defense website.