Russian military generals are heading to the border with Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a classified decree appointing officers to the command of the 8th Army, Kommersant reports , citing a high-ranking source in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news on Telegram , Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
As the publication’s interlocutor said, personnel selection was carried out over several months, and some military leaders took part in the Caucasus-2016 strategic command and staff exercises. According to him, all organizational measures are planned to be completed by the end of 2017, after which the 8th Army will begin to carry out its tasks in full.
The newspaper indicates that the commander of the 8th Army is Major General Sergei Kuzovlev, a participant in two Chechen campaigns, and last week his direct subordinates were identified.
“According to the presidential decree of July 5, Major General Oleg Tsekov was appointed chief of staff and first deputy of Sergei Kuzovlev. A graduate of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School, he served in the Turkestan, Transcaucasian, Transbaikal, Siberian and North Caucasian military districts, as well as in Mongolia. In 2007–2009, he commanded the 74th separate motorized rifle brigade (Yurga), after graduating from the military academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2011, he was the commander of the 200th separate motorized rifle brigade (Pecheneg). Two of his deputies were also appointed: they were Major General Gennady Anashkin and Colonel Harutyun Darbinyan.
The first participated in two Chechen campaigns, in 1999–2000 he commanded a parachute battalion as part of the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in August 2008, as commander of the 104th Guards Air Assault Regiment (76th Guards Air Assault Regiment division, Pskov), one of the first to take part in the “five-day war” with Georgia. For the battle with Georgian troops in the area of the village of Khetagurovo, the destruction of a military warehouse near the village of Variani and the capture of a commanding height with a television tower, Gennady Anashkin was nominated for the title of Hero of Russia. Colonel Darbinyan’s career is connected with the Airborne Forces: he managed to command the 76th division and the 83rd brigade, and until the last moment headed the headquarters of the 68th Army Corps (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk). According to Kommersant, he also had a business trip to Syria: there he helped plan operations for government troops fighting the militants of the Islamic State banned in the Russian Federation.
Major General Konstantin Kastornov was appointed another deputy to Sergei Kuzovlev. He is considered an experienced military leader: in 2008, he commanded the 3rd Vistula Motorized Rifle Division (Novy, Nizhny Novgorod), then the 70th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (Ussuriysk), and then was deputy commander of the 5th Combined Arms Army (it was then headed by the current Commander of the Airborne Forces Andrei Serdyukov) and acting commander of the 35th Combined Arms Army (Belogorsk). During the “Indestructible Brotherhood 2013” exercises, he commanded the collective peacekeeping forces of the CSTO.
Major General Igor Krasin became the third deputy commander of the army. Like General Kuzovlev, he took part in hostilities in Chechnya; they subsequently served together in the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army: General Kuzovlev as commander, and General Krasin as chief of staff (in 2015). Before this appointment, Igor Krasin was deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army (Novosibirsk). Major General Andrei Sychevoy, who previously commanded the 2nd Guards Motorized Rifle Taman Division and even served as commander of the 5th Combined Arms Army (Ussuriysk) during the Russian-Indian exercises Indra-2016, became General Kuzovlev’s fourth deputy. Colonel Vitaly Shelepeev took the post of deputy commander and chief of logistics of the 8th Army, and Major General Alexander Khudyakov became deputy commander and chief of armaments,” writes Kommersant.
As the newspaper's source in the military administration told, officers for the command of the 8th Army were selected with special care, giving preference to those who proved themselves in combat, and the 8th Army, together with the 150th separate motorized rifle division included in it (Novocherkassk ) should become the basis for covering the entire southern part of the southwestern strategic direction, that is, ensuring security on the border with Ukraine.
The publication notes that the Ukrainian special services accused some of the appointed generals of allegedly commanding units of the Donbass republics, which is categorically denied in Moscow.
Russian combat generals are heading to the Ukrainian border .