Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin, who took part in several offensive operations in Ukraine, has been publicly dismissed from the Russian military and reassigned to a civilian post in Tatarstan. A BBC analyst said the move may signal a shift from older top officers to a new generation.
The Kremlin usually keeps contentious dismissals under wraps, but this time leading Russian outlets reported the development, BBC noted.
Lapin played an active role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, known for the drives on Kyiv and Chernihiv, later on Lysychansk, and more recently for efforts to push the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) out of the Kursk region and create a “buffer zone” in Sumy and Kharkiv regions. The senior officer, who is not yet 61, was removed from the army. Media reports suggested this could reflect both a generational change and maneuvering against Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Russian outlet RBC reported Lapin’s dismissal on September 21. Anonymous sources said the top general, who was relieved in August from command of the Leningrad Military District, is moving to a civilian role in Tatarstan as an aide to the regional head, focusing on soldiers returning from the war in Ukraine. BBC pointed out that such transparency is unusual for the Kremlin, as similar dismissals typically happen behind closed doors. According to correspondent Ilya Balabanov, the public nature of the move sends signals about the state of Russia’s military.
The article recalls that Lapin led several campaigns in Ukraine, often accompanied by scandals or retreats from occupied areas. Since 2024, he has overseen operations around the Ukrainian breakthrough in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian command — and even pro-war Z-bloggers — saw failures. At first, Russian forces seized several villages in Sumy region through human-wave assaults, but later had to pull back. A similar picture emerged in Kharkiv region, where Lapin’s troops “were also doing poorly.” In the fourth year of the war and after a string of setbacks, the general — a deputy to Gerasimov — was ultimately removed from command. BBC’s correspondent suggested the Kremlin may be refreshing the team around the chief of the general staff or pursuing a “natural generational change.”
“There is a significant trend in the Russian army. There is a clear tendency to replace generals from his cohort with new faces from the group around Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Defense Minister Andrey Belousov,” the BBC concluded.
On August 21, Focus reported that Lapin was removed as commander of the Sever (North) grouping, which operated along the border of Russia’s Kursk region. He was replaced by Gen. Yevhenii Nykiforov, who has been linked to the missile strike on the drama theater in Chernihiv in August 2023.
In August, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi outlined Russia’s actions in Sumy region and Moscow’s plans in Zaporizhzhia.
