The senior Russian military commander who was publicly bashed by a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin over his performance in Ukraine is no longer in his post, according to Russian state media, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of personnel shake-ups as Moscow grapples with open criticism of its setbacks on the battlefield.Unconfirmed news reports that Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin had been relieved of command have been swirling since last month.Mr. Kadyrov’s post blamed General Lapin directly for Russian forces’ loss of the key city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, and said that the general should be “sent to the front to wash his shame off with blood.”The comments were part of highly unusual public criticism from right-wing hawks close to Mr. Putin about Russian forces’ struggles in the face of Ukrainian counteroffensives.On Sunday, Britain’s defense intelligence agency said that if General Lapin’s removal was confirmed, it would be the latest in a series of dismissals of top Russian military officials, and the first since Russia’s Defense Ministry last month appointed a new overall commander for its forces in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin.“These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield,” the agency wrote in its latest daily update."