Who was commanding Russia's war on 11 January 2023?

Who was in charge of Russia's war in Ukraine on 11 January 2023? The answer changed that day. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was appointed commander of the Joint Group of Forces taking part in the war. Generals Oleg Salyukov, Alexei Kim and Sergei Surovikin, who had previously held the position, became his deputies.

A reshuffle at the top

The appointment placed the Chief of the General Staff directly over the group of forces fighting in Ukraine. The three generals who had held the post before him were kept on as his deputies rather than removed from the structure.

Soledar and competing claims

The change came as fighting continued around Soledar in Donetsk Oblast. On 10 January 2023, the UK Defence Ministry said Russian forces controlled most of the settlement. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, went further and claimed the city had been taken in its entirety. The two accounts differed on how much of Soledar had fallen. The Battle of Soledar was a series of engagements in and around the settlement during the wider Battle of Donbas.

Treason and a cancelled drill

Two other developments from 10 January 2023 shaped the picture beyond the front line. In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stripped the pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk and three other people of Ukrainian citizenship, over accusations of high treason.

In the South Caucasus, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that joint military exercises with the Russian Armed Forces under the Collective Security Treaty Organization would be postponed this year. He cited the organization's refusal to condemn Azerbaijan over the disputes between the two countries.

Why the date stands out

Taken together, these items show a war being managed on several levels: a new commander named in Moscow, contested claims over a town in Donetsk Oblast, a legal move against a prominent pro-Kremlin figure in Kyiv, and a postponed exercise in Yerevan. The command appointment of 11 January 2023 was the most direct change to how Russia organised its campaign.