Putin reshuffles leadership of Russian forces fighting against Ukraine
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has announced personnel reshuffles in the leadership of the military force groupings taking part in the war against Ukraine.
Censor.NET reports, citing Radio Liberty, that he announced this at a meeting at the Russian Defence Ministry, footage of which was shown on 5 August.
Putin said that all logistics services of the Russian Defence Ministry would be "consolidated under a single command."
Valery Solodchuk, who previously commanded the Centre grouping of forces fighting in Ukraine, was appointed their chief.
The grouping will be headed by Andrey Ivanayev, who previously commanded the East grouping. East, in turn, will be headed by General Pyotr Bulgarev, the grouping’s former chief of staff.
Russian Unmanned Systems Forces
Denis Lyamin, chief of staff of the Centre grouping, will head the Russian Unmanned Systems Forces.
According to Putin, this branch of the armed forces is only now being formed, and "the task was to find a person who had proven himself in the best possible way in this work."
However, the creation of Russia’s Unmanned Systems Forces as a separate branch of the armed forces was announced back in November 2025. It was claimed that they would be headed by Yuriy Vaganov, a former plumbing fixtures and building materials salesman who began supplying drones to the Russian military after Russia launched its war against Ukraine.
