section_path: Battlespaces/Command
section_name: Command
paragraph_text: Command
  
  The supreme commanders-in-chief are the heads of state of the respective governments: President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. Putin has reportedly meddled in operational decisions, bypassing senior commanders and giving orders directly to brigade commanders.
  
  US general Mark Milley wrote in May 2022 that Ukraine's top military commander in the war, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, "has emerged as the military mind his country needed. His leadership enabled the Ukrainian armed forces to adapt quickly with battlefield initiative against the Russians." Russia began the invasion with no overall commander. The commanders of the four military districts were each responsible for their own offensives.
  
  After initial setbacks, the commander of the Russian Southern Military District, Aleksandr Dvornikov, was placed in overall command on 8 April 2022, while still responsible for his own campaign. Russian forces benefited from the centralisation of command under Dvornikov, but continued failures to meet expectations in Moscow led to multiple changes in overall command:
  
  Russia has suffered a remarkably large number of casualties in the ranks of its officers, including a number of generals.