Major General Mikhail Gudkov also led a brigade involved in combat operations against Ukraine. His death reportedly occurred during a Ukrainian attack on a Russian command post.
As a complete military noob: how does this affect the current conflict? By my naïve guess, it slows down the advance for a while, but ideally a well organised army has someone to stand in very shortly to minimise the effect. I understand it might lower the level of expertise, but considering such a large force (as in, many to pick from) I expect around the same level of competence from a substitute. Is it actually more significant than that? Are there other aspects I missed?
EDIT: Thank you all for the insights! It seems like it does have a tangible effect, and it actually takes longer to replace leadership than I anticipated. A life is a life, and nobody should die like this (especially when some power hungry megalomaniac sends you to), but you all helped me appreciate this news more, regardless.
Same as if the CEO of your employer gets switched out, with the difference, that the Russian Navy did not plan this. It is hard to find replacement and takes a while (6+ months). During that time, they have a disadvantage.
What’s even better, they got his deputy as well. Normally the deputy either gets a promotion, serves as the interim head or transitions the new incoming replacement.
Getting them both means the new replacements are coming in blind. Mistakes can be made due to lack of knowledge for the next year or so.
As a complete military noob: how does this affect the current conflict? By my naïve guess, it slows down the advance for a while, but ideally a well organised army has someone to stand in very shortly to minimise the effect. I understand it might lower the level of expertise, but considering such a large force (as in, many to pick from) I expect around the same level of competence from a substitute. Is it actually more significant than that? Are there other aspects I missed?
EDIT: Thank you all for the insights! It seems like it does have a tangible effect, and it actually takes longer to replace leadership than I anticipated. A life is a life, and nobody should die like this (especially when some power hungry megalomaniac sends you to), but you all helped me appreciate this news more, regardless.
Same as if the CEO of your employer gets switched out, with the difference, that the Russian Navy did not plan this. It is hard to find replacement and takes a while (6+ months). During that time, they have a disadvantage.
What’s even better, they got his deputy as well. Normally the deputy either gets a promotion, serves as the interim head or transitions the new incoming replacement.
Getting them both means the new replacements are coming in blind. Mistakes can be made due to lack of knowledge for the next year or so.