Putin replaces his defense minister as he begins his 5th term: NPR

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu leave Red Square after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu leave Red Square after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister on Sunday in a cabinet reshuffle that comes as he begins his fifth term in office.

In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian cabinet resigned Tuesday after Putin’s splashy inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members are 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 announced. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov to become the country’s defense minister in Shoigu’s place.

The announcement of Shoigu’s new role comes as 13 people were killed and 20 others injured in the Russian border town of Belgorod, where part of a residential building collapsed after what Russian authorities described as bombing Ukrainian.

Belousov’s candidacy will have to be approved by the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council. It was reported on Sunday that Putin had also presented proposals for other ministerial posts, but Shoigu is the only minister on this list who is being replaced. Several other new candidates for federal ministerial positions were proposed on Saturday by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, reappointed on Friday by Putin.

Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was arrested last month on corruption charges and ordered to remain in detention pending an official investigation. Ivanov’s arrest was widely interpreted as an attack on Shoigu and a possible precursor to his dismissal, despite his close personal ties to Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Putin decided to give the role of defense minister to a civilian because the ministry needed to be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” . He also said that the increase in the defense budget “must fit with the country’s economy as a whole”, and Belousov, who until recently was first deputy prime minister, is the ideal person for this. job.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, November 7, 2023. Putin appointed Belousov as defense minister.

Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin swimming pool photo via AP

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Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, November 7, 2023. Putin appointed Belousov as defense minister.

Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin swimming pool photo via AP

Belousov, 65, held senior positions in the finance and economics department of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed advisor to Putin and seven years later, in January 2020, he became first deputy prime minister.

Peskov assured that the reshuffle would not affect the “military aspect”, which “has always been the prerogative of the chief of staff”, and General Valery Gerasimov, who currently holds this post, will continue his work.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an online commentary that Shoigu’s new appointment to the Russian Security Council showed that the Russian leader viewed the institution as “a reservoir” for his “‘former'” figures. keys – people who he cannot in any way let go of, but he has no room for.”

Figures such as former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have also been named to the security council. Medvedev has been vice-president of the organization since 2020.

Shoigu was appointed to the Security Council in place of Nikolai Patrushev, Putin’s longtime ally. Peskov said on Sunday that Patrushev would take on another role and promised to reveal details in the coming days.

Shoigu is widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to send Russian troops to Ukraine. Russia expected that the operation would quickly overwhelm the much smaller and less equipped Ukrainian army, and that the Ukrainians would largely welcome the Russian troops.

Instead, the conflict prompted Ukraine to mount an intense defense, inflicting humiliating blows on the Russian military, including reversing an attempt to take the capital, kyiv, and launching a counteroffensive that drove Moscow forces out of the Kharkiv region.

Before being named defense minister in 2012, Shoigu spent more than 20 years leading very different jobs: in 1991, he was named head of the Russian Rescue Corps’ disaster response agency , which eventually became the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He became very visible in this position. This position also allowed him to be appointed general even though he had no military service behind him, the relief corps having absorbed the militarized civil defense troops.

Shoigu does not wield the same power as Patrushev, who has long been the country’s top security official. But the position he takes — the same position that Patrushev worked to transform from a minor bureaucratic role to a place of considerable influence — will still have some authority, according to Mark Galeotti, director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence.

High-level security documents for the president will continue to flow through the Security Council Secretariat, even if there are changes at the top. “You can’t just institutionally overthrow a bureaucracy and its functioning overnight,” he said.

Thousands of Ukrainians fled Russian ground offensive

Rescuers help Liudmila Kalashnik, 88, after she was evacuated from Vovchansk, Ukraine, on Sunday. Her husband was killed in their home after a Russian airstrike on the city.

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Rescuers help Liudmila Kalashnik, 88, after she was evacuated from Vovchansk, Ukraine, on Sunday. Her husband was killed in their home after a Russian airstrike on the city.

Evgueni Maloletka/AP

Thousands of civilians have fled Russia’s new ground offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortars, officials said Sunday.

Intense fighting forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw to the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces through 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 pre-war population of 17,000, became the focal point of the battle.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, Kharkiv regional police chief, said Russian forces were on the outskirts of the city and approaching from three directions.

An Associated Press team, positioned in a nearby village, saw plumes of smoke rising from the town as Russian forces launched shells. Evacuation crews worked non-stop throughout the day to remove residents, most of whom were elderly, from danger.

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 posted on social media. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeastern front line, where Russian forces attacked 27 settlements in the past 24 hours, it said.

Analysts say the Russian offensive aims to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies reach the front line.

Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin was using the usual Russian tactic of launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry assaults to wear down Ukrainian troops and firepower. By intensifying fighting in what was previously a static part of the front line, Russian forces threaten to pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast, while carrying out intense fighting further south, where Moscow is also gaining ground. .

It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts said was a concerted effort to create conditions for an offensive.

Meanwhile, a 10-story building partially collapsed in Belgorod near the border, killing at least 13 people and injuring 20 others. Russian authorities said the building collapsed following Ukrainian bombing. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had captured four villages on the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in addition to the five villages reportedly seized on Saturday. These areas were likely poorly fortified due to dynamic fighting and intense, constant bombardment, facilitating the Russian advance.

Ukrainian leaders have not confirmed Moscow’s achievements. But Tymoshko, the Kharkiv regional police chief, said that Strilecha, Pylna and Borsivika were under Russian occupation and that it was from their direction that they were bringing in infantry to stage attacks on other villages besieged by Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.