Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, has been appointed Commander of the Russian Joint Group of Forces as part of a special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry added that Commander of the Aerospace Forces General Sergey Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Colonel General Alexei Kim have been named Gerasimov's deputies.
The new appointments in the leadership of the special military operation are connected with the expansion of the scale of the tasks being solved and the need for closer interaction between all types and branches of the military, the MoD explained.
