Sukhrab Akhmedov

Sukhrab Akhmedov (born 1974) is an officer in the Russian Armed Forces. He held the rank of major general and commanded the 20th Combined Arms Army until May 2024.

Personal life and education
Akhmedov was born on 1974 in Grozny, in the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, though with origins from Palisma, Dagestan. He graduated from the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School in 1996, starting his military service in Novosibirsk. In 2005, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow. Akhmedov is married to Margarita Vladimirovna and has three children, two daughters and a son.

Career
He was the commander of the 36th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade before taking command of the 155th Separate Marine Brigade in 2009.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine from 2022, he was commander of coastal troops in southern Ukraine. The brigade was employed in the Battle of Vuhledar, where Russian forces took heavy losses. Following the campaign, complaints surfaced from surviving marines that poor military leadership was a cause of the enormous losses. Public information surfaced in December 2022 that Akhmedov could be removed from his position as a result. Following these rumors, Russian high command discounted the allegations of leadership inadequacies and failures from November, and by December, Novaya Gazeta reported that they had information that Akmedov would be promoted.

By June 2023, Akmedov had been promoted to major general and given command of the 20th Combined Arms Army. Russian sources reported that a division of the 20th had suffered about 200 casualties (100 killed, 100 wounded) in June 2023 from Ukrainian artillery while they were assembled together near Kreminna for two hours waiting for Akhmedov to deliver a motivational speech. He was heavily criticized for this by Russian military bloggers, including a call for responsible commanders to be shot in front of their formations for such failures.

In May 2024, Akhmedov was removed from his post as the commander of 20th army.