Sergei Surovikin, Russia's Ukraine war chief, known for Syria brutality - The Washington Post

It is unclear whether Monday’s barrage, which continued to a lesser grade Tuesday, marked a displacement successful tactics that volition qualify the warfare for months to come.

But Surovikin, whose assignment was announced by Russia’s Defense Ministry connected Saturday, is astir assuredly tasked with shifting results connected the battlefield, wherever Russian forces person suffered a drawstring of setbacks, including a adjacent full rout successful the northeastern Kharkiv portion and territorial losses passim regions that Putin decreed annexed successful usurpation of planetary law.

Surovikin, 56, who earned the nickname “General Armageddon” successful Syria, is the archetypal overarching commandant of the onslaught successful Ukraine to beryllium designated publically by the Russian government.

The announcement coincided with the explosion connected the Crimean Bridge, a monument to Moscow’s 2014 onshore drawback of the Crimean Peninsula and a favored task for Putin that has served arsenic a captious conduit from Russia to the battlefield for troops, weapons, instrumentality and different supplies.

Just 2 days aft the bridge blast, which Putin has blamed connected Ukraine’s peculiar services, Moscow unleashed “high-precision, long-range weapons from the air, oversea and land” to bombard Kyiv, Dnipro and different Ukrainian cities during the greeting unreserved hour. It was astir apt 1 of the archetypal orders fixed with Surovikin officially successful his caller role.

Such a merciless bombing represents a benignant of warfare akin to that for which Russian generals became infamous during the 2015 incursion into Syria, erstwhile Moscow sent thousands of troops to prop up the authorities of Bashar al-Assad. The aerial bombardments near Syrians reeling and caused wide demolition of civilian infrastructure. Some Ukrainians are fearful they volition present endure the aforesaid fate.

Surovikin did not invent those tactics, nor was helium the lone commandant to oversee them — but helium was peculiarly successful. In recognition, Putin awarded Surovikin the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, the country’s highest honor.

“He is being called the ‘Butcher of Syria,’ but each wide that took that station was a butcher of Syria,” said Kirill Mikhailov, a researcher with the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which has been monitoring Russian subject activities since 2014. “It’s a occupation you instrumentality due to the fact that sidesplitting radical and making their beingness miserable is what the Russian aerial unit tin bash best.”

Surovikin’s archetypal circuit successful Syria took spot successful March 2017 and was expected to past astir 3 months arsenic Moscow sought to springiness firsthand combat acquisition to arsenic galore high-ranking officers arsenic possible. But Surovikin ended up overseeing the run until the extremity of the twelvemonth and was promoted to aerial unit commander, contempt moving up the ranks arsenic an service wide starring vessel and different types of units.

The Russian Defense Ministry repeatedly credited Surovikin with achieving captious gains successful Syria, saying that Russian and Syrian forces “liberated implicit 98 percent” of the state nether him.

“The Syrian service nether him lifted the siege of the strategical metropolis of Deir al-Zour and recaptured Palmyra for the 2nd and past time, which was rather an important portion of the combat against ISIS,” Mikhailov said, referring to the Islamic State violent group. “The happening circumstantial to Surovikin is that helium really fought with ISIS, which you could accidental is simply a much formidable force than conscionable Syrian rebels.”

A 2020 Human Rights Watch report said that aerial and crushed attacks connected civilian sites, including homes, schools and hospitals, were a hallmark of Russia’s run successful Idlib, which Surovikin participated successful during his 2nd circuit successful 2019. The study listed him arsenic 1 of the commanders “who whitethorn carnivore bid work for violations” during the Idlib offensive.

Pro-Kremlin media outlets lionized him arsenic “General Armageddon.”

“He received this unofficial nickname from colleagues for his quality to deliberation extracurricular the container and enactment tough,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper wrote successful a June profile.

In Ukraine, Surovikin led the South grouping of forces, which was liable for the Luhansk portion successful eastbound Ukraine, and helium is credited with capturing the towns of Hirske and Zolote successful June and subsequently Lysychansk, the past large Ukrainian-held metropolis successful the hotly contested area.

Most recently, the CIT said, Surovikin was rumored to beryllium cardinal successful holding the enactment of Russian defenses successful the confederate Kherson region, wherever Moscow’s troops were forced to retreat from the occidental slope of the Dnieper River but wherever the beforehand has not crumbled arsenic rapidly arsenic it did adjacent Kharkiv successful the northeast.

It is not wide erstwhile Russian subject chiefs decided to enactment Surovikin successful complaint of the wide war. Russia reportedly appointed astatine slightest 2 erstwhile commanders successful its astir eight-month war, but determination were nary authoritative announcements, and each seemingly lasted conscionable a fewer weeks arsenic Russian forces suffered strategical failures and dense casualties.

Surovikin, arsenic the person of 1 of the largest groupings of forces, mightiness person been successful complaint for immoderate clip present contempt the lack of immoderate nationalist acknowledgment, Michael Kofman, the manager of Russia studies astatine CNA, a defence probe institute based successful Virginia, suggested successful a tweet.

Surovikin archetypal achieved notoriety astatine property 24, during the failed coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev successful August 1991. Then holding the fertile of captain, helium led a motorized firearm battalion that drove done barricades acceptable up by protesters extracurricular the Russian White House.

Units nether Surovikin’s bid killed 3 civilians — Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky and Vladimir Usov. After the failed coup, Surovikin was jailed for respective months but past was freed and ne'er convicted of immoderate transgression arsenic prosecutors successful Moscow ruled that helium was simply obeying an order, the Russian authorities paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported successful 2011.

Surovikin’s loyalty to the equipped forces successful their futile effort to prevention the Soviet Union from inevitable illness has been celebrated by modern-day Russian hard-liners who spot the conquest of Ukraine arsenic a steppingstone to the restoration of the Russian empire.

“Surovikin is simply a legendary person; helium was calved to faithfully service the Motherland,” Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the St. Petersburg businessman who founded the Wagner backstage subject company and has recruited prisoners to service arsenic mercenaries and bolster Russian ranks successful Ukraine, said successful a statement. “We each retrieve the events astatine the White House successful August 1991, and Surovikin was the serviceman who received an bid and without hesitation got into a vessel and rushed to prevention his country.”

Some 30 years later, Surovikin was promoted to wide of the army, the second-highest subject fertile successful Russia, which is achieved by conscionable a fistful of officers. His promotion led to speculation that helium mightiness beryllium an eventual successor to Valery Gerasimov, the main of the wide staff.

Throughout Surovikin’s career, the Russian media has described him arsenic a harsh and, occasionally, ruthless leader.

“In the army, helium is known arsenic an ardent protagonist of unity of bid and installing bid with an ‘iron fist,’ ” Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported successful 2008 erstwhile Surovikin was appointed main of the main operational directorate of the Russian wide staff.

According to a 2004 report successful the concern regular Kommersant, a colonel serving nether him killed himself aft a heated dressing-down helium received from Surovikin. The aforesaid study said a lieutenant colonel from Surovikin’s part sent a ailment to the subject prosecutor’s bureau accusing Surovikin and different officers of beating him due to the fact that of governmental differences.

“He is known to beryllium rather harsh and cruel, truthful helium is not a precise pleasant commandant to have, arsenic I understand,” Mikhailov said. “However, erstwhile a commandant is being chosen, the important portion is not adjacent immoderate tactical acumen oregon the content helium has connected the subordinates — but the 1 helium has connected the superiors on with a cognition that helium is prepared to combat a existent war.”

Surovikin has officially taken the helm with the Russian penetration arguably astatine its lowest constituent since it started connected Feb. 24. A Ukrainian counteroffensive routed Russian forces from cardinal strongholds successful the east. Moscow’s troops are exhausted. And a mobilization intended to telephone up hundreds of thousands of reinforcements has led to an exodus of fighting-age men from the country, arsenic good arsenic reports by conscripts that they are ill-equipped and receiving mediocre training.

Monday’s dense rocket bombardment has been praised by pro-Kremlin subject correspondents who successful caller weeks had been speaking successful defeated tones astir Ukraine’s battlefield gains.

“New attacks connected captious infrastructure successful Vinnytsia region, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv region, Kyiv, Lviv, Rivne, Odessa region, Khmelnytsky,” fashionable warfare newsman and blogger Alexander Kots crowed connected his Telegram blog connected Tuesday, listing Ukrainian cities targeted by Russian missiles. “In grant of General Surovikin’s birthday, we inquire the vigor to play ‘Don’t halt maine now’ by Queen.”

Late Tuesday, the Kremlin said Putin had telephoned Surovikin to congratulate him connected his birthday.

Russian and Western subject experts, however, caution that the jubilation among hard-line voices successful Moscow is apt to beryllium short-lived arsenic unit changes and aerial attacks connected Ukrainian cities neglect to lick much entrenched problems successful the Russian military.

“Shuffling elder commanders volition not hole the systemic problems that person hamstrung Russian operations, logistics, defence industry, and mobilization from the outset of the invasion,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based deliberation tank, said successful a caller analysis. Putin “can lone anticipation thereby to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensives for a time,” it added.