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20th Army

In the event of a full-scale offensive by Russia (such an option is considered quite likely by the Ukrainian General Staff), it is the 20th Combined Arms Army that will be the first strike echelon in the north-eastern direction of Ukraine. In the western direction, NATO pressure remains, anti-Russian rhetoric in the alliance countries and Ukraine does not subside, and the maneuvers of the 20th Army remain highly relevant (from Belgorod to Kiev in a straight line - only 430 km).

After 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea and part of Donbas, the leadership of the Russian army decided to significantly strengthen the grouping of its troops on the northeastern border of Ukraine. The basis of this grouping was the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District. The 20th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District poses a significant threat in the northeastern direction of Ukraine. It has a powerful combat team - two divisions numbering about 10-12 thousand people each, and units of combat and operational support of the army. In general, this group has about 30,000 people (not counting other armies and units directly subordinated to the Western Military District).

The commander of the 20th Army of the Russian Armed Forces, Sukhrab Akhmedov, was removed from his post, Vladimir Rogov, co-chairman of the coordination council for the integration of new regions, said in his Telegram channel 24 May 2024. "The commander of the 20th Army, Sukhrab Akhmedov, has been removed from his post,” wrote the chairman of the Russian OP Commission for the Protection of Sovereignty. Akhmedov is a graduate of the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, which he graduated from in 2005. In the past, he commanded the 36th separate guards motorized rifle brigade and the 155th separate marine brigade. Appointed commander of the 20th Army in December 2022. At the end of 2023, by decree of President Vladimir Putin, he received the military rank of lieutenant general.

In recent months, several high-ranking military personnel have ended up in pre-trial detention. The day before it became known about the detention of the head of the department of the Ministry of Defense for ensuring state defense orders, Vladimir Verteletsky. He was accused of abuse of power. At the end of April, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense Timur Ivanov, responsible for the military construction complex, was arrested. According to the suspect's defense, he was charged with a bribe worth about a billion rubles. Ivanov was temporarily suspended from his post.

In addition, on May 13, it became known about the detention of the chief personnel officer of the defense department, Yuri Kuznetsov , and on May 17, the ex-commander of the 58th Army, Ivan Popov, was arrested. The first was accused of bribery on an especially large scale; according to the source, we are talking about an amount of 30 million rubles. The second was fraud. In addition, the head of the Main Communications Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vadim Shamarin, was suspected of receiving a bribe in the amount of 36 million rubles. The court arrested him on 22 May 2024.

After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Warsaw Pact countries in the 1990s, Russian armies and divisions were systematically reduced for decades. And at the beginning of the XXI century, the western direction and the capital of Russia were defended only by the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army (withdrawn from the German Democratic Republic), which was deployed in a truncated form in twelve regions of the Central Federal District. In 2010, the army headquarters and its individual parts were transferred from the Voronezh region east, to Nizhny Novgorod. And from Smolensk to Moscow there were only military enlistment offices. The reverse movement began only in 2014, against the background of aggravation of relations with Ukraine.

Near the state border, new military units and new combined-arms training ranges appeared. So in the Voronezh region, clearing of unexploded ordnance and preparations for the reconstruction of the Pogonovo training ground began; the possibility of expanding the combined arms training ground near Boguchar was being discussed. In the same place, on a site of 206 hectares, two military camps are being built, in which they plan to deploy more than 5 thousand military personnel (the cost of the project will be about 2.1 billion rubles).

Not all important military exercises and trainings are made public, but Russia was energetically strengthening its defense in the western direction. The intensity of classes in the field was increasing, and even command-and-staff exercises and trainings have a pronounced practical orientation. In September 2016, servicemen of a motorized rifle compound of the Western Military District (ZVO), with the support of helicopters at the Pogonovo training ground in the Voronezh region, worked to stop the breakthrough of the state border. And later, as if completing the elimination of the breakthrough, the gunners successfully performed night firing at the same training ground.

At an enlarged meeting of the military council of the Western Military District in St. Petersburg, the district’s annual results were summed up. Commander of the Western Military District troops Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov said: "In 2016, the district conducted more than 1,100 exercises and trainings of various levels, the troops received more than one thousand units of modern military equipment, extensive work was done to improve the infrastructure and commission new combat training facilities "

Earlier in November 2016, exercises of the 20th Army took place, during which improved command and control methods in general, training of commanders and staffs, command and control bodies. The organization and conduct of various types of military operations, the modern organization of work at control points were worked out. The goal was to get as close as possible to high-tech information exchange parameters. In modern conflicts, the winner is the one who quickly makes the right decisions.

On 17 November 2016, a command and staff training (KShT) began in the Western Military District (ZVO) with the command and control bodies of the formations and military units of the 20th Combined Arms Army, which was deployed in the Voronezh, Bryansk and Belgorod regions. A military operation was carried out using a wide range of weapons. Headquarters at various levels in a difficult environment must quickly make decisions and provide continuous and stable command and control. During the training, information exchange on an automated control system was worked out around the clock, the algorithms for the preparation of operations (combat operations) and troop command are refined.

Two commanders of the 20th Army, who were replaced in a year and a half, came from the 58th and returned to it. Major General Kuzovlev, who previously held the post of chief of staff of the South-Eastern Military District association, was transferred to Voronezh in July 2015 - almost immediately after the redeployment of the 20th Army from the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In August 2016, he returned to the 58th army as commander. He himself, in an interview with Kommersant, praised the transfer as an increase: "This is an appointment to the largest, most powerful and one of the most combat-ready armies." The former colleague of Major General Kuzovlev, deputy commander of the 58th Army, Major General Yevgeny Nikiforov, took the place of commander of the 20th Army. During the standard transfer ritual, he called the formation of two divisions in the army one of the main tasks in the new post.

In the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army (headquarters in Voronezh) the third commander changed in a year and a half. Following his predecessor, Sergei Kuzovlev, he left the association and, with a promotion, returned to the 58th army (headquarters in Vladikavkaz), Major General Evgeny Nikiforov. His place was taken in March 2017 by the commander of the 68th Army Corps of the Eastern Military District, Major General Alexander Peryazev, who had previously led the combat training of the Ground Forces.

By presidential decree of 15 May 2018, Major General Andrei Ivanaev was appointed commander of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army, and was introduced to the personnel. For more than a year this post was held by Alexander Peryazev, now he has gone on promotion to Moscow and will continue to work in the Main Directorate of Combat Training. The ceremony was traditionally begun with the removal of the standard of the 20th Army and the presentation of the Badge of the commander. After that, the head of the headquarters of the Western Military District Viktor Astapov said that Ivanaev knows personally: he was a military officer, behind him was the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School, the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces and the Academy of the General Staff. Major General began his service as a tank platoon commander.

With the advent of the new commander, checks began. The commission headed by the chief of staff of the Western Military District Viktor Astapov undertook the audit. Under close scrutiny was not only the work of the management of the 20th Army as a whole (the state of armaments and equipment, discipline, actions of commanders), but also the combat readiness of the signalmen. The latter remains to be proved not in words but in deeds: units will deploy field nodes and communication stations, and the commission will evaluate literally every step. But the test will end with a big exam: the staff will pass tests. As a result, a real picture of the level of training of almost one and a half thousand military personnel will be formed.