President Putin removes defence minister Shoigu

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday moved to replace defence minister Sergei Shoigu in a major shake-up to Russia's military leadership more than two years into its Ukraine offensive.

Putin proposed economist Andrey Belousov as Shoigu's replacement, according to a list of the ministerial nominations published by the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.

The move comes at a key time in the conflict with Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine and having just launched a major new ground operation against the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Despite a string of military setbacks in the first year of the campaign -- including the failure to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and retreats from the Kharkiv and southern Kherson regions -- Putin had stood by Shoigu until now.

That included when Wagner paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a bloody insurrection last year calling for Shoigu's removal.

Explaining the timing of the decision, the Kremlin on Sunday said it needed the defence ministry to stay "innovative".

"The defence ministry must be absolutely open to innovation, to the introduction of all advanced ideas, to the creation of conditions for economic competitiveness," state media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in a briefing on the appointments.

"The battlefield is won by whoever is more open to innovation," Peskov said.

"That is likely why the president has settled on the candidacy of Andrey Belousov," he added.

Belousov, who has no military background, has been one of Putin's most influential economic advisers over the last decade.

UK defence minister Grant Shapps said the Ukraine conflict had left more than 355,000 Russian soldier casualties under Shoigu's watch as well as "mass civilian suffering".

"Russia needs a Defence Minister who would undo that disastrous legacy" and end the conflict, "but all they'll get is another of Putin's puppets," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

- Siberian retreats -

Shoigu, 68, was appointed Russian defence minister in 2012 and has had a decades-long political career of unmatched longevity in post-Soviet Russia.

His presence at the centre of power in Moscow predates that of Putin himself.

Prior to Russia launching its full-scale military campaign on Ukraine in February 2022, he was seen as one of Putin's most trusted lieutenants.

The pair were regularly photographed on macho nature retreats in the Siberian wilderness, hunting and fishing together.

In one famous snap from 2017 shared by the Kremlin, they are sitting bare-chested under the sun on a beach by a lake.

On Sunday, Putin simultaneously issued decrees naming Shoigu as the new secretary of the Security Council, replacing his longstanding ally Nikolai Patrushev.

The Kremlin also said Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff, would stay in post overseeing daily military operations in Ukraine.

Along with Shoigu, Gerasimov had been targeted by a hardcore group of influential pro-offensive military bloggers for Moscow's perceived military failures.

Prigozhin, who marched on Moscow calling for the pair's removal, died in an unexplained plane crash weeks after his aborted mutiny.

- Key moment -

Putin is constitutionally required to name a new set of government ministers -- or reappoint existing ones -- following his victory in a March election devoid of opposition.

Lawmakers in Russia's rubber-stamp parliament need to approve the president's nominations, which they are set to do over the coming days.

The future of Patrushev, an arch-hawk who is sometimes seen as a possible successor to Putin, was unclear.

There was no immediate high-level reaction to the shake-up in Ukraine.

The changes come at a crucial time in the conflict, which had been showing signs of a stalemate for months.

Putin casts the fight against Ukraine as a near-existential battle for his country, calling it just one front of a "hybrid war" between Russia and the West.

Thousands evacuated as Russia advances in Kharkiv

Russia said Sunday it had captured four more villages in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, as thousands of residents were evacuated from the offensive in an area where Russian troops were repelled in 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said "fierce fighting" was under way and governor Oleg Synegubov said "all areas" of the regional border with Russia were now "under enemy fire almost around the clock".

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to replace defence minister Sergei Shoigu, in what would be a major shake-up of the military leadership.

Across the border in the Russian city of Belgorod, emergency services said 15 people were killed when a residential building was hit by a Ukrainian missile after it was intercepted by air defences.

In Ukraine, local prosecutors said four civilians had been killed in the Kharkiv region in the Russian ground offensive, which was launched on Friday.

The Ukrainian army's top commander said that although the situation was "complicated", his forces were managing to hold back further Russian advances.

But Russia's defence ministry said its forces had "advanced deeply into the enemy defences", a day after claiming the capture of five villages in Kharkiv region.

At an evacuation point near the front line in the Kharkiv region, AFP reporters on Sunday saw groups of people evacuated from around the border town of Vovchansk, most of them elderly and disoriented.

"We weren't going to leave. Home is home," said 72-year-old Lyuda Zelenskaya, hugging a trembling cat named Zhora.

Liuba Konovalova, 70, said she had endured a "really terrifying" night before her evacuation.

Volunteers assisted evacuees to a few wooden benches where they registered and received food before being evacuated towards Kharkiv, the regional capital.

In the last few days, nearly 6,000 residents in and around Vovchansk have been evacuated, said Kharkiv governor Synegubov.

"Defensive battles and fierce fighting continue on a large part of our border," Zelensky said in his evening address.

"There are villages that have actually turned from a 'grey zone' into a combat zone, and the occupier is trying to gain a foothold in some of them, or simply use them for further advancement," he said.

A "grey zone" is territory not fully controlled by either side.

Zelensky added the situation was "extremely difficult" around Vovchansk.

- 'Everything is being destroyed' -

Speaking at an evacuation point near Vovchansk, Oleksiy Kharkivsky, a senior police officer helping to coordinate evacuations, said the area was "constantly under fire".

"Everything in the city is being destroyed... You hear constant explosions, artillery, mortars. The enemy is hitting the city with everything they have," he said.

Officials estimated there were still around 500 civilians left in Vovchansk as Russian troops close in.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of police in the Kharkiv region, said the town was being attacked on three sides and Russian troops were on the outskirts.

"Despite active fighting, the police are still taking out people who live some 300, 500 metres from the contact line at the moment," he told AFP at the evacuation point.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on social media that his army's defences were holding but conceded the situation in the Kharkiv region had "deteriorated significantly".

- 'Return the initiative to Ukraine' -

In Kharkiv itself, mayor Igor Terekhov was quoted by the city council as saying there was no reason for people to leave the city despite the offensive.

"Despite all the events that are taking place in the region, Kharkiv is calm. We do not see people leaving," he was quoted as saying.

On Saturday, AFP saw groups of people fleeing the border area arriving in vans and cars loaded with bags at a reception centre for evacuees near Kharkiv.

Evacuees -- most of them elderly -- received food and medical assistance.

Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks in the border villages.

"Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task," he said.

Troops must "return the initiative to Ukraine", the president insisted, again urging Western allies to speed up arms deliveries.

Ukrainian officials had warned for weeks that Moscow might try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and manpower shortages.

Putin's announcement that Shoigu was being removed as defence minister is expected to be approved by Russia's parliament on Tuesday.

His replacement, Andrey Belousov, has no military background. He has been one of Putin's most influential economic advisers over the last decade.

Shoigu has been named as secretary of the Security Council, replacing long-standing Putin ally Nikolai Patrushev.