Change of military command in Ukraine shows Russia is having problems, says the Pentagon

EUROPEAN PRAVDA - THURSDAY, 12 JANUARY 2023, 23:14 The Ministry of Defence of the USA believes that Russia's shake-up of the command of the "united grouping of forces" that are fighting in Ukraine is a sign of the "systemic challenges" Moscow faces. Source: Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, cited by European Pravda based on a report by Reuters

Quote: "I am not going to speculate on how it may affect the situation on the front. I will only remark that it likely does reflect some systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion."

Some of these include "logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale and the ... failure to achieve the strategic objectives that they've [the Russians - ed.] set for themselves," he added. Ryder said that the USA continues to monitor the events connected with the changes in the Russian military command in Ukraine.

"I think the world would rather see Russia focus on withdrawing from Ukraine and saving innocent lives versus spending time on numerous management shuffles, and Russian soldiers and their families would probably like to see that as well",  Ryder commented.

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Background: On Wednesday, 11 January the Ministry of Defence of Russia claimed that Sergey Surovikin was removed from the position of the commander of the "united grouping of forces" in Ukraine. He was replaced by Valeriy Gerasimov, the head of the General Staff of Russia, and became his deputy head.

The Ministry of Defence of Russia called this change "increasing the level of command of the special operation".

It claimed that it is connected with "extending the scale of tasks to be completed" and "the necessity of organising closer cooperation between different types of military forces."

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