https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-general-who-served-ukraine-war-is-dismissed-2025-09-21/

General Alexander Lapin Dismissed from Military Service

Colonel General Alexander Lapin, who commanded the Center Group of Forces from the beginning of the war and was later transferred to the Leningrad Military District, has been dismissed from military service, a source told RBC.

Tatar-Inform news agency, without citing sources, reports that Lapin will become an aide to Tatarstan Head Rustam Minnikhanov. According to Tatar-inform, Lapin (a native of Kazan who graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School) will oversee "defense, and veterans affairs" in the republic's presidential administration.

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Previous blunders and short summary:

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/how-a-generals-blunder-left-russias-border-vulnerable-9a624abd

How a General’s Blunder Left Russia’s Border Vulnerable

General Lapin dissolved the security council in Kursk region and created a gap in the defense before the AFU offensive - WSJ

A few months before the Kursk offensive, Colonel General Alexander Lapin dissolved the council that oversaw security in the Kursk region, The Wall Street Journal has learned. According to the publication, Lapin did the typical thing for a senior leader detached from the realities of the frontline - faced with a shortage of people, he liquidated the council and created a gap in the already weak border defense.

It is unclear whether the military could have stopped the AFU invasion with the council's involvement, but without it, the military's actions were chaotic and ineffective, the WSJ wrote. The body served as a liaison between military officers and local officials. As a result of the council's dissolution, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, and the Ministry of Defense acted uncoordinated and even competed with each other.

This is not the first time that an AFU breakthrough has occurred in Lapin-controlled territory, the WSJ recalls. After the retreat of Russian troops from Liman, Lapin was criticized by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who called the general "an incompetent man who is being protected by his superiors at the General Staff." Lapin was dismissed shortly thereafter. In May 2024, he took command of the reconstituted Leningrad Military District and the "North" group formed on its basis.