The star of Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, known as “General Armageddon” for the brutality of his operations, has faded after turning from Russia’s decorated hero to suspected of links to the Wagner Group rebellion.
“He is the only person with the Army General star who knows how to fight. There is no other so wise and with a star,” the head of the mercenaries said of him in May. Yevgueni Prigozhin, who is now protected by President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
Surovikin was appointed by the Moscow military leadership as the businessman’s liaison at the front after the dialogue with Prigozhin became unsustainable due to his criticism of the defense ministry.
Unknown location
After the rebellion of the mercenaries over the weekend, the general was among the first to urge them to stop the riot, but since Saturday his whereabouts are unknown and Russian media claim he was arrested for alleged links to the riot.
the trust of Vladimir Putin with him it was maximum so far. Last October, he appointed him head of the military campaign in Ukraine.
The head of the Kremlin ordered him to turn the tables after the setbacks suffered by his army, as the veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Syria had distinguished himself on the Ukrainian fronts.
Under his command, Russian troops captured the city of Severodonetsk in the Lugansk region months earlier.
Surovikin’s appointment was announced hours after the October 8, 2022 explosion that damaged the Crimean Bridge, considered one of Putin’s emblematic works, and the main supply infrastructure for the Russian-annexed peninsula.
However, in January of this year he was replaced as commander of operations by Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valeri Guerasimov.
Putin nevertheless left him deputy command of the troops in Ukraine.
‘Hero’ of Russia
Surovikin’s reputation as a tough soldier goes back to his days as a captain when he commanded a motorized infantry battalion.
In August 1991, during the attempted coup in the Soviet Union, Surovikin’s battalion was involved in the incident that claimed the lives of the riot’s only three fatalities, for which it was detained and investigated for seven months.
He was released without charge on the direct order of then Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
He had already been trained in Afghanistan as a commander of a special forces unit.
In 1995, while studying at the Frunze Military Academy, where he graduated with honors, he was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence for illegal arms sales, a sentence that was later overturned.
After serving in Tajikistan, he graduated from the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2002, also with honors.
He headed the Defense Ministry task force that created the Russian Military Police.
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In October 2013, he was appointed Chief of the Western Military Constituency and two months later to the rank of Colonel General.
Between March and December 2017, he commanded the group of Russian troops stationed in Syria and led the massive bombing of Syrian cities such as Aleppo, then controlled by the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
During this campaign, he was named Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces, becoming the first army officer in Russian history to head that branch of the armed forces.
On October 31 of the same year, Putin awarded Surovikin the title Hero of Russia for his role in Syria.
“This general has a resume of atrocities against civilians in other theaters, in Syriaand we expect more of the same in this theater (Ukraine),” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the time.
Source: Eluniverso
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