Yuri Bukreyev

Colonel General Yuri Dmitriyevich Bukreyev (born 19 May 1941) is a Russian retired military officer who served as the Head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ground Forces from 1998 to 2001. He began his career in the Soviet Army in 1960, before becoming a graduate of the Tashkent Higher Tank Command School, the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy, and the Voroshilov General Staff Academy.

Early life Bukreyev was born in the village of Vtoraya Alekseyevka in Kursk Oblast, Russian SFSR. The German invasion of the Soviet Union began shortly after that and his family fled the occupation by moving to the Voronezh Oblast. In 1946, the family moved to Alma-Ata, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic where he graduated from high school. He graduated from the Tashkent Higher Tank Command School, and later from the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy, From 1973 he served in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany as a deputy commander and then commander of a tank regiment, and as the chief of staff of a motor rifle division. From 1980, he was a commander of a division in the Kiev Military District (Konotop). Bukreyev graduated from the Voroshilov General Staff Academy in 1985 with a gold medal.