Leonty Shevtsov was born on 14 March 1946 in the village of Stepnoye, Timiryazev District [ru], in the North Kazakhstan Region of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

[3][5] In March 1993 Shevtsov became the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate, General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

When Lieutenant General Anatoly Kvashnin was appointed to lead the Joint Group of Federal Forces in Chechnya in December 1994, he chose to have Shevtsov as his chief of staff.

[5] During the early phase of the First Chechen War he was responsible for planning and implementing the military operations there[6] and took part in the battles of Grozny, Argun, Gudermes, and Shali.

The negotiations at the ministerial level were focused on preserving the command structure while still having the Russian military forces take part in the mission.

The exact solution for the framework of the mission was worked out by him and U.S. Army General George Joulwan, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

[10][11] In three weeks they successfully arranged the joint Russian-NATO mission, despite the fact that previously their military-to-military ties were in an early stage of development, and it had been mostly limited to high-level meetings with no practical work at the lower levels.

[12] Shevtsov and a delegation of five Russian officers arrived at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, on 15 October 1995.

[16] According to Joulwan, the cooperation between NATO and Russia at SHAPE and in Bosnia contributed to the development and signing of the NATO–Russia Founding Act at the 1997 Paris summit.

[2] Speaking about the NATO-Russian military-to-military cooperation, he said "We military have set an example for our politicians by demonstrating that the question of Russian participation in a peacekeeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina jointly with the Americans ... can be successfully solved.

[5] The reforms that Shevtsov implemented at the Internal Troops included creating high-readiness units, raising the professionalism of officers, and improving combat training and material conditions.