Russian Defence Ministry says Shoigu travelled again to war zone in Ukraine
The Russian Ministry of Defence has said that its head, Sergei Shoigu, has inspected the headquarters of the East group of forces while working in the special military operation (as the Russians call the war against Ukraine) zone.
Source: Russian Ministry of Defence on Telegram; BBC News Russian Service; Russian media outlet Agents
Quote from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation: "Sergei Shoigu heard a report from Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, commander of the East group, on the current situation and the actions of the group of forces and commanders on other fronts, at the East group’s command post.
The Russian Defence Minister also heard from the commanders of forces and units on the progress of combat missions on the main fronts."
Details: The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation also published a video of Shoigu holding a meeting with the military leadership and presenting awards.
PHOTO OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF THE RUSSIA
The video from the meeting was recorded without sound, all documents on the tables were blacked out, and the titles of the names of speakers who were included via video link were also blurred.
The Agents outlet drew attention to the fact that the video showed Evgeniy Nikiforov, whom the Ukrainian and Western intelligence agencies have said to be the new commander of the West group of forces in Ukraine.
SCREENSHOT FROM THE VIDEO OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF THE RUSSIA
In the video, Nikiforov is participating in a video conference with Shoigu and the commander of the "special operation", Valeriy Gerasimov.
His title is given as a representative of the command of the West group, but his position is not named, and his first and last name are blurred out on the screen.
According to British intelligence, Nikiforov, in his previous position as chief of staff of the East group of Russian forces at the beginning of the invasion, took an active part in planning an unsuccessful attempt to attack Kyiv from the north-west – from Belarus through the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exclusion zone.
In the new position, British intelligence noted, Nikiforov will have to hold the territory of Luhansk Oblast around Kreminna and Svatovo.
Ukrainian intelligence has said that Nikiforov has become the fourth commander of the Western Military District since the beginning of the war.
He reportedly participated in the conflict in Donbas back in 2014 and was involved in the attack by pro-Russian forces on an Il-76 Ukrainian Air Force aircraft, which was shot down in Luhansk on 14 June 2014.
Background:
- The Russian Ministry of Defence has already reported several times on Shoigu's alleged visits to the war zone in Ukraine.
- In particular, on 18 December, the Ministry published a video showing Shoigu allegedly flying around military positions by helicopter. But later it turned out that in fact Shoigu was about 80 kilometres from the front line – in temporarily occupied Crimea.
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