Aleksandr Dvornikov

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Dvornikov (Russian: Александр Владимирович Дворников; born 22 August 1961) is a retired Russian Ground Forces officer who was the first field commander of the Russian military intervention in Syria, from 2015 to 2016, and of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022.

After joining the Soviet Army in 1978, Dvornikov rose through the ranks of the Soviet and then Russian army over a period of thirty years. In 2015, he became commander of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria during the Russian military intervention there. At that time he cemented a reputation for the harsh conduct of his military campaigns as those in Chechnya before. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation in 2016 and was promoted to general of the army in 2020. Dvornikov has written extensively about tactics and training in Russian military journals.

In February 2022, he was the commander of the Southern Military District and led the southern front at the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which was the most successful during the first stage of the war. In April 2022, according to US officials, Dvornikov was placed in charge of all forces in Ukraine. However, his appointment was never official confirmed. According to CIT, he was replaced with Colonel General Gennady Zhidko late in May 2022. He was replaced at the Southern Military District by Colonel General Sergey Kuzovlev in January 2023. From February to December 2024, he was the chairman of DOSAAF of Russia.