MOSCOW: Russia's Defence Ministry on Saturday named Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Moscow's third senior military appointment in the space of a week.
The change follows the reported sacking earlier this week of the commanders of two of Russia's five military regions, as its forces have suffered a series of dramatic reverses in northeastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks.
The ministry did not say who, if anyone, Surovikin was replacing.
British military intelligence said in April that General Alexander Dvornikov had been appointed to take charge of Russian forces in Ukraine, almost two months after Moscow began what it calls its "special military operation", in an attempt to "centralise command and control".
However, Moscow itself has not specified that anyone is in overall military command of the operation.
Surovikin, 55, has led Russia's Air and Space Forces since 2017.
According to the ministry's website, he commanded a guards division stationed in Chechnya in 2004, during Moscow's war against rebels, and was awarded a medal for his service in Syria in 2017.
Meanwhile, Russia's Transport Ministry said on Saturday that limited road traffic for cars and buses had resumed on intact lanes of the Crimean Bridge, which was hit by an explosion early in the morning.
It said traffic would for now be restricted to crossing between Crimea and the Russian Taman peninsula in alternating directions.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, said on social media that heavy goods vehicles would have to wait to cross by ferry. - Reuters
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