Overview

• RBC reported on Sept. 21 that Colonel General Alexander Lapin was removed from military service, attributing the claim to sources familiar with the decision.
• Tatar-inform said Lapin will become an assistant to Tatarstan leader Rustam Minnikhanov, with Ukrainska Pravda adding he would handle support for veterans and their families, all based on unnamed sources.
• Lapin oversaw Russia’s defenses in Kursk Oblast in 2024, where Ukraine mounted a rare cross-border incursion that reportedly seized about 1,300 square kilometers early in the operation.
• He previously commanded forces during Ukraine’s 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, drawing a public rebuke from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov for Russia’s failures there.
• Ukraine’s prosecutor general named Lapin a suspect in 2022 for waging an aggressive war and violating the country’s territorial integrity.