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Military operation in Ukraine

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General Ivanayev appointed commander of Russia’s Battlegroup East

Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov held a working meeting at the command center of the Battlegroup East in the special military operation area where he listened to commanders’ reports on the current situation

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Lieutenant General Andrey Ivanayev has been appointed commander of Russia’s Battlegroup East, according to a press release on a visit by Defense Minister Andrey Belousov to the Battlegroup’s area of responsibility posted by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday.

Russian Defense Minister Belousov held a working meeting at the command center of the Battlegroup East in the special military operation area where he listened to commanders’ reports on the current situation, the nature of the enemy’s activities and the fulfillment of combat missions by Russian troops in operational directions within their area of responsibility, the ministry specified.

"Battlegroup East Commander Lieutenant General Andrey Ivanayev reported to the defense minister that the Battlegroup’s units had liberated seven communities over the month and gained control of an area of more than 300 square kilometers. As a result of the efficient employment of high-precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles [by Russian troops], the enemy is sustaining heavy losses in equipment and personnel," the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, Lieutenant General Mikhail Nosulev commanded Russia’s Battlegroup East. Fifty-two-year-old Ivanayev was previously commander of the 20th Combined Arms Army.

Ivanayev was born in 1972 in the town of Uralsk in the Kazakh ASSR. He graduated from the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School, the Combined Arms Academy of the Russian Armed Forces and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. He climbed his career ladder from a tank platoon commander in the Transcaucasian Military District to a motor rifle brigade commander in the Western Military District.

He served as chief of the District Training Center in the Eastern Military District from 2013 and chief of staff - deputy commander of the Eastern Military District’s Combined Arms Army from 2017. Ivanayev who has combat experience has been awarded the Orders "for Military Merit" and "For Merit to the Fatherland" III Degree with Swords.

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