Colonel General Alexander Chayko has been appointed the new commander-in-chief of Russia’s Aerospace Forces, according to a report by business outlet RBC, citing a source familiar with the personnel decision and another source close to the Ministry of Defense. Chayko replaced General Viktor Afzalov, who had led the branch since October 2023, when he succeeded Sergei Surovikin.
This past March, Chayko was added to the European Union’s sanctions list among nine people held responsible for the Bucha massacre — the mass killing of civilians and prisoners of war in the city of Bucha just outside Kyiv in March 2022. The Council of the EU’s press release said Chayko was “the most senior Russian military officer on the ground in Ukraine at the outset of the full-scale invasion” who was the “lead commander in Ukraine when Russian troops entered Bucha.”
Chayko commanded the Vostok (lit. “East”) group of forces and, in that role, oversaw the Russian offensive on Kyiv from Belarus. At the time, he was commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District.
After the start of the war in Donbas in 2014, Chayko oversaw the covert transfer of troops across the Russian-Ukrainian border. In 2016, Vladimir Putin appointed him commander of all airborne troops. In 2017, he was among the first Russian officials to be sanctioned by Ukraine.
Chayko also took part in Russia’s military operations in Syria in 2020-2022. Under his command, Russian and Syrian forces captured the city of Kobani, a Russian air base was established in Qamishli, and the Damascus-Aleppo highway was reopened in early 2020. After a brief stint as commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District in November 2021 - July 2022, Chayko returned to Syria. After the overthrow of Bashar Assad in December 2024, he continued to be listed as commander of the Russian grouping in Syria.
Russian pro-war circles reacted negatively to Chayko’s appointment. Andrei Filatov, a “war correspondent” for the propaganda channel RT, shared a link to the news on his Telegram channel with the comment: “Want a total clusterf**k? Here it comes.” Filatov’s comment was reposted by military expert Maxim Klimov and war blogger Rostislav Mokrenko.
