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PROFILE: The general who led the brutal bombing of Syria is the new face of the Russian war

2022-10-21 21:25:39Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
PROFILE: The general who led the brutal bombing of Syria is the new face of the
General Sergei Surovikin and Vladimir Putin

General Sergei Surovikin, who implements President Vladimir Putin's new military strategy in Ukraine, is known for his brutality in Russia's bombing of Syrian civilians.

He played a role in the deaths of three protesters in Moscow during the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 that precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Hairless and wild-looking, General Surovikin was put in charge of Russian forces in Ukraine on October 8, after eight months of war have forced Moscow into a series of chaotic retreats and other setbacks.

President Putin put the 56-year-old in charge of the army after the bombing of the strategic bridge on the Crimean Peninsula put the Kremlin in a difficult position and created logistical problems for the Russian forces.

Russia responded with barrages of missiles across Ukraine, which Mr. Putin said were aimed at knocking out Ukrainian energy infrastructure and military command centers. Such attacks have continued daily, hitting power plants and other facilities with Iranian-made missiles and drones.

General Surovikin retained the post of air force chief, a position that could help him coordinate airstrikes with other interventions.

During the most recent bombings, several Russian war bloggers shared a statement attributed to him, which expressed the intention to continue the attacks with unstoppable force, to pound the Kiev government until it surrenders.

"I do not want to sacrifice the lives of Russian soldiers in a guerilla war against fanatical groups armed by NATO," the military was quoted as saying in the distributed statement. "We have enough technical means to force Ukraine to surrender."

Although the veracity of the statement cannot be confirmed, it appears to reflect the same heavy-handed approach that Mr. Surovikin took in Syria where he oversaw the destruction of entire cities to wipe out rebel resistance without paying much attention to the civilian population. This indiscriminate bombing was condemned by international human rights groups and some media have called it "General Armageddon".

President Putin awarded General Surovikin the country's highest medal, the Hero of Russia, in 2017 and promoted him to major general.

Kremlin supporters praised Mr. Surovikin's appointment in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire businessman dubbed "Putin's boss" who owns a company that has received contracts from the military that plays a key role in the fighting in Ukraine, hailed him as "the best commander in the Russian army."

But even as hard-liners expected Mr Surovikin to ramp up missiles over Ukraine, his first public statements after his appointment sounded more like acknowledgments of the Russian military's weaknesses than threats.

In his statements on Russian state television, Mr. Surovikin acknowledged that Russian forces in southern Ukraine were in a "pretty difficult position" in the face of Ukrainian attacks.

In cautious statements that Mr. Surovinkin was seen reading on a teleprompter, he said further action in the region would depend on the progress of the fighting. Observers interpreted his statement as an attempt to prepare the public for a possible Russian withdrawal from the strategic southern city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

General Surovikin began his military career in the Soviet Army in the 1980s and, as a junior lieutenant, was appointed unit commander. He was later elevated to the post of Chief of the Air Force, causing mixed reactions in their ranks because it was the first time that this post was given to an infantry officer.

He was at the center of a political clash in August 1991, when the old Communist Party leadership staged a coup, temporarily ousting then-leader Mikhail Gorbachev and sending troops into Moscow to declare a state of emergency. General Surovikin commanded one of the mechanized infantry battalions that entered the Russian capital.

Popular resistance quickly grew, and in the final hours of the three-day coup, protesters blocked an armored convoy led by General Surovikin and tried to set some of the vehicles on fire. In a chaotic clash, two protesters were shot and a third was crushed to death by an armored vehicle.

Immediately after the failure of the coup, General Surovikin was arrested. He spent seven months in jail pending an investigation, but was eventually acquitted and even given the rank of major after investigators concluded he was simply obeying orders from his superiors.

Another difficult moment in his career came in 1995, when General Surovikin was convicted of illegal possession and trafficking of firearms while studying at a military academy. He was sentenced to a year in prison, but the sentence was soon overturned.

He rose steadily in his military career, commanding units deployed to the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, troops deployed to Chechnya, and serving in other posts throughout Russia.

He was named commander of Russian forces in Syria in 2017 and served a second term there in 2019 as Moscow sought to support President Bashar Assad's regime in efforts to retake territory amid a devastating civil war.

In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named General Surovik, along with President Putin, Syrian President al-Assad and other figures as responsible for human rights violations during the 2019-2020 Syrian offensive in the province of Idlib.

According to Russian media, he apparently has a temper that has not been liked by his subordinates. An officer who served under General Surovikin complained to prosecutors that the general had beaten him after he was angry about the way he voted in parliamentary elections. Another subordinate reportedly shot himself because of a conflict with General Surovik. Investigators found no wrongdoing in any of these cases.

His history in Syria may have been a factor in his appointment as commander of Russian forces in Ukraine as President Putin makes decisions to step up the stakes and reverse a series of heavy battlefield losses.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has repeatedly called for increased strikes in Ukraine, praised Mr. Surovik as "a true general and a fighter, well-experienced, far-sighted and powerful who prioritizes patriotism, honor and dignity ".

"The joint force (in Ukraine) is now in safe hands," said Mr Kadyrov, who has the backing of the Kremlin, expressing confidence that he would "improve the situation on the ground".


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