KYIV: Moscow replaced its top logistics general on Saturday after a series of setbacks on the back of a series of setbacks as the Kremlin-held regions of eastern and southern Ukraine voted for a second day on becoming part of Russia.
After the Ukraine invasion, a major mobilisation drive by Russia has resulted in a lot of logistical difficulties, with Kyiv now taking back more and more territory.
Russia's invasion and recent gains by the Ukrainian army in a light-hearted counter-offensive have bared important logistical flaws with some analysts seeing logistics as the weak link in Moscow's army.
General Dmitry Bulgakov has been relieved of the post of deputy defence minister and will be replaced by General Mikhail Mizintsev, aged 60, the defence ministry said.
Russia's partial mobilization announced on Wednesday will likely be one of his biggest logistical challenges with hundreds of thousands of reservists being called up needing to be trained and equipped before deployment.
On Friday, a vote on whether Russia should annex four regions of Ukraine was dramatically raised after Moscow's troops invaded, raising the stakes seven months later.
The US president Joe Biden has dismissed the referendums as a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force in flagrant violation of international law. Even Beijing, Moscow's closest ally since the war began in February, reacted.
The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi - in comments made to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba at the UN General Assembly on Friday - said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected. Voting is being held in Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.