After recovering, Lyakhov was sent back to the Southwestern Front and on 4 October appointed chief of staff of the 987th Rifle Regiment of the 226th Rifle Division. With the division as part of the 21st Army he fought in defensive battles on the eastern bank of the Seversky Donets. For his actions in the battle for Yastrebovo on 29 December, in which he was wounded, then-Major Lyakhov was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 10 April 1942. Wounded a second time on 13 February 1942 near Sazhnoye, he was appointed commander of the regiment in April, leading it in the Second Battle of Kharkov during May and June. On 22 June the division marched to the Korocha region, rejoining the 21st Army, part of the Southwestern Front and then the Stalingrad Front from 12 July, fighting in the Battle of Voronezh and the defensive of the approaches to Stalingrad. During the Battle of Voronezh, Lyakhov was wounded a third time on 13 June near Novo-aleksandrovskoy, Kharkov Oblast.