1 Institute for the Study of War & AEI’s Critical Threats Project 2022
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
Mason Clark, Karolina Hird, and George Barros
April 11, 8:30pm ET
Special Edition: Army General Aleksandr Vladimirovich Dvornikov
US intelligence reported over the weekend of April 9-10 that Russian Army General
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Dvornikov, commander of the Southern Military District, is
now in overall command of Russian operations in Ukraine. This news is unsurprising;
Dvornikov is the most senior of the three Russian military district commanders involved
in the invasion, and the Russian military is concentrating its efforts almost exclusively
in the area of Ukraine that Dvornikov had already been commanding. Had Putin selected
another officer to command the entire war effort, he would likely have had to relieve
Dvornikov for these reasons. There is no reason to suppose, therefore, that Dvornikov
was specifically selected to take control of the war effort for any particular skills or
experience he might have. Nor is there reason to think that the conduct of the Russian
war effort will change materially more than it was already changing from the
abandonment of the drive on Kyiv and the focus on the east. This update, which we are
publishing in addition to our regular military operations assessments, explains
Dvornikov’s career history and experience in Syria, the challenges he faces, and what his
appointment means for the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
Dvornikov has commanded the Southern Military District since September 2016,
capping a military career that began in 1978. He graduated from the Ussuriysk Suvorov Military
School—a Soviet military boarding school—at age 18 in 1978.
Dvornikov then served as a platoon
commander, company commander, and battalion chief of staff in the Far Eastern Military District (the
predecessor of Russia’s current Eastern Military District) throughout the 1980s.
From 1991 to 1994,
Dvornikov served as deputy commander and then commander of a motorized rifle battalion assigned
to the Western Group of [Soviet] Forces in Germany. From 1995 to 2000, Dvornikov served as chief of
staff and then commander of an unspecified motorized rifle regiment of the Moscow Military District
(which merged into the current Western Military District in 2010). He then served as chief of staff and
commander of another motorized rifle regiment in the North Caucasian Military District (now part of
the Southern Military District) until 2003, during which time he likely participated in the Second
Chechen War. From 2005 to 2008 Dvornikov served as a deputy commander and then chief of staff of
the 36th Army (part of the current Eastern Military District). Dvornikov commanded the 5th Red
Banner Combined Arms Army of the Far Eastern Military District from 2008 to 2010. Dvornikov served
as a deputy commander of the Eastern Military District from 2010 to 2012, then as chief of staff of the
Central Military District from April 2012 to 2015.
Dvornikov commanded Russia’s forces in Syria from the official beginning of the Russian intervention
in September 2015 to July 2016.
He has commanded the Southern Military District since September
20, 2016.
Putin promoted Dvornikov on June 23, 2020, to the rank of army general, the second-highest
rank in the Russian military and one not held by any other military district commander.
Dvornikov
is Russia’s senior-most military district commander, outranking the other two military
district commanders involved in the invasion of Ukraine, and a likely candidate (along
with the commander of the Aerospace Forces, Army General Sergey Vladimirovich
Surovikin), to succeed Valery Gerasimov as Russia’s next chief of the general staff.
Dvornikov’s career path is not unusual among senior Russian general officers.
Dvornikov’s foundational military experience—like many of his fellow general officers—was his
