In 1942 Bulatov and general Vyacheslav Tsvetaev were assigned to the 10th Reserve Army, which trained more than 20 divisions that went on to fight on the Stalingrad, Don, and Southwestern Fronts. In December that year the unit was renamed the 5th Shock Army and sent to the Stalingrad Front. Later that month the 5th Shock Army was incorporated into the Southwestern Front, but less than two weeks later it was put in the Southern Front on 3 January 1943. There, the unit fought in the battles for Rostov-on-Don, Donbass, Melitopol, Nikolaev, and Odessa. In March that year Bulatov was promoted to the rank major-general. In June 1944 he was appointed as deputy rear commander of the 10th Guards Army, which was stationed on the Baltic Front. The previous month, his nation had been collectively deported from Crimea to Central Asia, declared "enemies of the people", and deprived and many civil rights. Since Bulatov was an officer in the Red Army, he was spared deportation in May 1944, but he was still treated like a second-class citizen after the war. In January 1945 he became the deputy rear commander of the 21st Army on the 2nd Belorussian Front, and participated in the battles for Koenigsberg and Berlin.