Russia has appointed General Alexander Dvornikov, who has combat experience in Syria, to lead the invasion of Ukraine, British broadcaster BBC reported on Saturday.
A Western official told the BBC, on condition of anonymity, that he expected “command and control in general to improve” after a series of setbacks by Moscow in the military action that took place against its neighbor on 24 February.
According to this source, Dvornikov “has a lot of experience in Russian operations in Syria,” a country in civil war where Moscow has successfully supported dictator Bashar al-Assad’s campaign against rebel groups since 2015.
The official said that the Russian offensive in Ukraine has met with resistance from Kiev troops, even though it has a larger contingent. “Unless Russia manages to change its tactics, it is very difficult to see how they can succeed even in these limited goals that they have re-established for themselves,” he said.
Until now, there has never been a single commander assigned to war, at least in public. According to Russian military analysts, decisions were taken within the framework of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, under the command of General Valeri Gerasimov, but decentralized to generals in the field.
This may explain the diversity of objectives, sometimes conflicting, that marked the initial phase of the operation. Without focus and concentration of forces, the Russians dispersed into separate fronts, leading to success in southern Ukraine and failure in the attempt to encircle Kiev — a target abandoned in favor of action in Donbass (the east controlled by separatists since 2014).
Dvornikov’s appointment, if confirmed, shows that Vladimir Putin is concerned with a more coordinated solution to the new stage of the conflict, which has already been announced as the taking of the entire areas of the former Lugansk and Donetsk provinces.
The general is known as a ruthless commander with a reputation for brutal actions in Syria’s civil war.
