Russia appoints Sergey Surovikin supreme commander in Ukraine war. The general is seen as a brutal and ruthless hardliner. This is also shown by his military actions in Chechnya and Syria.
After more than seven months of war in Ukraine, Russia appoints a new supreme commander of the Russian troops. With the 55-year-old Army General Sergei Surovikin, a single person is officially taking over the leadership of the “military special operation” for the first time. Even though the Russian media considered Alexander Dvornikov to be the previous commander of the operation, this was never publicly communicated by the Kremlin.
Surovikin, who previously commanded the “South” forces in Ukraine, is by no means a blank slate in Russia. In 2017, President Vladimir Putin bestowed on him the highest honorary title, Hero of the Russian Federation. In the West, on the other hand, he is regarded as an unscrupulous military man who, according to the British Ministry of Defense, is “confronted with allegations of corruption and brutality”.
The Surovik native from the southern Russian city of Novosibirsk is a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the two Chechen wars. He became known to the Russian public in the course of the failed August coup in Moscow in 1991. At that time, a battalion shot dead three demonstrators under his leadership. Surovikin was arrested, but after seven months in prison he was personally rehabilitated by Boris Yeltsin. The reason: He was only following orders. In 1995, a court sentenced him to a suspended sentence for illegal arms trafficking, which was also later lifted.
According to a report by the Jamestown Foundation, a US military think tank, Surovikin is known in the Russian army for his “total ruthlessness”. As a commander in the second Chechen war, he was accused of physically assaulting junior officers. An officer reportedly fatally shot himself in the head in Surovikin’s office in 2004 after he had been reprimanded. A year later, Surovikin announced that he intended to kill three Chechens for every soldier he killed, the report says.
Despite this, from the late 2000s, Surovikin had a meteoric career in the Russian military apparatus. In 2017 he became Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force. “Surovikin’s willingness to rigorously carry out all orders defeated all conceivable questions about his controversial CV,” the experts write.
Surovikin has also proven his unscrupulousness in Syria. As head of the Air Force, he is said to have been involved in war crimes. He is accused, for example, of being responsible for the bombing of Aleppo, which reduced the city to rubble and ash. A report by human rights organization Human Rights Watch lists him as one of three commanders who “may bear responsibility for violations” during Russia’s offensive in Syria’s Idlib in 2019 and 2020.
With the appointment of Surovikin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also wants to appease the numerous critical voices that were raised after the military setbacks in Ukraine. According to Russian media, members of the military and the Wagner mercenary group reacted euphorically to the appointment of the “responsible” Surovikin.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently repeatedly acted as a harsh critic of the Russian military leadership, praised Surovikin as “the best commander in the Russian army” and “legendary”. He recalled the attempted coup d’état in 1991: “After receiving the order, Surovikin without hesitation got into his tank and rushed off to save his country,” Prigozhin said, according to the Russian exile medium Meduza.
Russian political scientist Greg Yudin told the British Telegraph that Surovikin’s promotion should set an example. “It is highly symbolic that Sergei Surovikin, the only officer who ordered the shooting of revolutionaries, killing three people in August 1991, is now responsible for this latest attempt to restore the Soviet Union,” Yudin said.
Sources close to the Kremlin characterized “Meduza” Surovikin as a supporter of large-scale missile attacks on infrastructure, including civilian infrastructure. “Surovikin is not sentimental,” said one of the two sources. According to the Internet newspaper, Surovikin is known in the Russian army as “General Armageddon” – “for his ability to act unconventionally and brutally”.
This description matches the recent Russian attacks on Ukraine. Just two days after Surovikin’s appointment as supreme commander, Russia began shelling targets across Ukraine. For the first time in months, rockets are hitting the capital Kyiv again.
(This article was first published on Monday, October 10, 2022.)
