Colonel-General Alexander Lapin was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Russian Armed Forces. RBC writes about this with reference to a source in the Ministry of Defense.
Until October, Lapin commanded the Center group of troops in the war in Ukraine. In October, he was removed from his post. Shortly before that, he was criticized by the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. They claimed that the colonel-general was personally responsible for the loss of Liman and the breakthrough of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Ternov, Torskoy and Yampolovka in the Donetsk region. In addition, according to Kadyrov, Lapin, who received the Hero of Russia star for capturing Lisichansk, was not actually in Lisichansk.
“It's not a shame that Lapin is mediocre. And the fact that he is covered at the top by the leaders in the General Staff. If I had my way, I would demote Lapin to a private, deprive him of his awards and, with a machine gun in his hands, send him to the front line to wash away his shame with blood, ”said Kadyrov.
A few days before the suspension, Sota reported that Lapin personally held a pistol to the temples of the retreating mobilized in Svatovo.