Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a cabinet reshuffle that comes as he begins his fifth term.
In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian cabinet resigned on Tuesday following Putin’s brilliant inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members were widely expected to keep their jobs, while Shoigu’s fate appeared uncertain.
Putin signed a decree on Sunday appointing Shoigu as secretary of the Russian Security Council, the Kremlin said. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov become the country’s defense minister instead of Shoigu.
The announcement of Shoigu’s new role came as 13 people were reported dead and 20 more injured in the Russian border town of Belgorod, where a 10-story apartment building partially collapsed after what Russian officials said was a Ukrainian bombing. . Ukraine has not commented on the incident.
Belousov’s candidacy will need to be approved by the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council. It reported Sunday that Putin also submitted proposals for other cabinet positions, but Shoigu is the only minister on that list who is being replaced. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, re-elected on Friday by Putin, proposed other new candidates for federal ministers on Saturday.
Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was arrested last month on charges of bribery and ordered to remain in custody pending an official investigation. Ivanov’s arrest was widely interpreted as an attack on Shoigu and a possible precursor to his removal, despite his close personal ties to Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Putin had decided to give the post of defense minister to a civilian because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” He also said the growing defense budget “must fit into the country’s broader economy,” and Belousov, who until recently served as first deputy prime minister, is the right candidate for the job.
Belousov, 65, held leadership positions in the economic and finance department of the prime minister’s office and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed Putin’s adviser and seven years later, in January 2020, he became first deputy prime minister.
Peskov assured that the reorganization will not affect “the military aspect”, which “has always been the prerogative of the Chief of the General Staff”, and General Valery Gerasimov, who currently holds this position, will continue his work.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an online comment that Shoigu’s new appointment to the Russian Security Council showed that the Russian leader viewed the institution as “a repository” for his “‘exes’.” key figures: people who can’t let it go in any way, but don’t have a place for it.”
Figures such as former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev have also been appointed to the security council. Medvedev has served as vice president of the organization since 2020.
Shoigu was appointed to the Security Council in place of Nikolai Patrushev, Putin’s long-term ally. Peskov said Sunday that Patrushev will take on another role and promised to reveal details in the coming days.
Shoigu has been widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to send Russian troops to Ukraine. Russia hoped that the operation would quickly overwhelm the much smaller and less equipped Ukrainian army, and that the Russian troops would be widely welcomed by the Ukrainians.
Instead, the conflict prompted Ukraine to mount an intense defense, dealing the Russian military humiliating blows, including withdrawing an attempt to take the capital, kyiv, and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv region.
Before being named defense minister in 2012, Shoigu spent more than 20 years running markedly different work: in 1991, he was named head of the Russian Rescue Corps’ disaster response agency, which eventually became the Ministry of Situations. of emergency. He became very visible in office. The job also allowed him to be named general even though he had no military service behind him, as the rescue corps absorbed the militarized Civil Defense Troops.
Shoigu does not wield the same kind of power as Patrushev, who has long been the country’s top security official. But the position he will assume — the same position Patrushev worked to transform from a minor bureaucratic role to a place of considerable influence — will still carry some authority, according to Mark Galeotti, head of the consulting firm Mayak Intelligence.
High-level security materials intended for the president’s eyes will continue to pass through the Security Council Secretariat, even with changes at the top. “You cannot institutionally change the bureaucracy and its functioning overnight,” he stated.
Thousands of civilians have fled Russia’s renewed ground offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has hit cities and towns with a barrage of artillery and mortars, officials said Sunday.
Intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more territory to Russian forces in less defended settlements in the disputed so-called gray zone along the Russian border.
On Sunday afternoon, the city of Vovchansk, one of the largest in the northeast with a prewar population of 17,000, emerged as a focal point of the battle.
Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the Kharkiv regional police, said Russian forces were on the outskirts of the city and were approaching from three directions.
An Associated Press team stationed in a nearby village saw plumes of smoke rising from the town as Russian forces launched projectiles. Evacuation teams worked around the clock to get residents, most of whom were elderly, out of harm’s way.
At least 4,000 civilians have fled the Kharkiv region since Friday, when Moscow’s forces launched the operation, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a statement on social media. Heavy fighting took place on Sunday along the northeastern front line, where Russian forces attacked 27 settlements in the past 24 hours, he said.
Analysts say the Russian push is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front lines.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the usual Russian tactic of launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry attacks to deplete Ukrainian troops and firepower. By intensifying battles in what was previously a static area of the front line, Russian forces threaten to pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast, while carrying out intense battles further south, where Moscow is also gaining ground.
It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March on energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort to shape the conditions for an offensive.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had captured four border villages along Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in addition to five villages that were reported to have been captured on Saturday. These areas were likely poorly fortified due to dynamic fighting and constant heavy bombardment, which facilitated the Russian advance.
Ukraine’s leaders have not confirmed Moscow’s achievements. But Tymoshko, head of the Kharkiv regional police, said that Strilecha, Pylna and Borsivika were under Russian occupation, and that it was from his direction that they were bringing in infantry to carry out attacks on other conflict-ridden villages of Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.
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Associated Press journalists Samya Kullab in kyiv, Ukraine; Vasilisa Stepanenko in Vilcha, Ukraine; Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
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