UKRAINE: THE SITUATION 324 - JANUARY 11, 2023

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on January 11 that Chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, will take over command of the battlefield in the Ukraine as part of a larger restructuring of the Russian command structure for the war.

The Russian Ministry of Defense officially appointed Gerasimov as the commander of the Joint Forces and has named three deputies who are subordinate to Gerasimov: the former commander of the battlefield in Ukraine from October 8 to January 11, Army General Sergei Surovikin, Commander of the Aerospace Forces, Army General Oleg Salyukov, Commander of the Ground Forces, and Colonel General Alexei Kim, Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff. Surovikin has been the Commander of the Aerospace Forces since October 2017 and was the commander of the "South" armed forces group in Ukraine from June to October 2022 before being appointed as the field commander. Salyukov has been the Commander of the Russian Ground Forces since 2014, and Kim has been Deputy Chief of General Staff since September 2022 after holding various positions in Russian military educational institutions.

Despite recent Russian advances, the Russian forces have not yet fully taken Soledar, and it is unlikely that the possible capture of Soledar will enable Russian forces to capture Bakhmut.

The complete Russian Offensive Update 324 is available directly from UNDERSTANDING WAR.

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