Top General Behind Russia's 2022 Lyman Retreat Blamed For Kursk Failures

A high-profile Russian general was responsible for a plan that weakened defenses on the Kursk border with Ukraine earlier this year, according to a new report, as Moscow struggles to contain Kyiv's advance more than two weeks after a surprise incursion was launched.

Colonel General Alexander Lapin, a prominent Russian commander who was criticized for his handling of the Kremlin's war effort in 2022, got rid of a council made up of various Russian authorities tasked with securing the Russian border with Ukraine's Sumy region, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Ukraine is more than two weeks into its shock push into Kursk, thousands of troops involved in the most significant advance into internationally-recognized Russian territory of the war so far.

Kyiv's forces quickly advanced across the border, and Ukraine's army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, indicated on Tuesday that Kyiv has a grip on just under 489 square miles of territory and 93 settlements in Kursk.

"The operation is unfolding exactly as we expected," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday. "Now we are reinforcing our positions. The foothold of our presence is getting stronger."

Russia's senior officials have repeatedly said its troops, under a "counterterrorism operation" led by the federal security service, the FSB, have halted Ukrainian gains.

This narrative has been contradicted by a number of influential Russian military bloggers, Ukrainian sources and Western analysts, the response chaotic and so far unsuccessful in staunching Kyiv's advance.

Russia's emergency situations ministry said on Tuesday that more than 122,000 citizens along the border have been evacuated.

The pace of Ukraine's gains, and what appears to be a scant level of Russian defenses in the region, are an embarrassment for Moscow, even as Ukraine signals it does not intend to permanently keep up a presence in Kursk.

Lapin was removed from his post as head of Russia's central military district in October 2022 as criticism swirled around Russia's military command, Ukraine quickly regaining territory in its lightning counteroffensive at the time.

The Russian commander was blamed by prominent voices in Russia, such as Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the now-deceased former head of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for Ukraine retaking Lyman, a strategic transit hub in eastern Ukraine.

Russian state media reports from early 2023 then suggested Lapin had been appointed the chief of staff for Moscow's ground forces. In spring 2024, he became the head of the Leningrad Military District, along Russia's western border with NATO in Europe.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

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