The senior Russian military commander who was publicly bashed by a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin over his performance in Ukraine is no longer in his post, according to Russian state media, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of personnel shake-ups as Moscow grapples with open criticism of its setbacks on the battlefield.

Unconfirmed news reports that Colonel General Alexander Lapin had been relieved of command have been swirling since last month. Then, last week, the Russian state news agency Tass reported that Major General Alexander Linkov was now the interim commander of the Central Military District, meaning that he had assumed General Lapin’s role — at least temporarily.

General Lapin’s fate had been the subject of increasing speculation since Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, slammed him as “incompetent” in a Telegram post last month.

Kadyrov’s post blamed General Lapin directly for Russian forces’ loss of the key city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine. The comments were part of highly unusual public criticism from hawks close to Putin about Russian forces’ struggles.

(New York Times News Service)