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Surovkin was awarded in 2017 by President Putin for military service in Syria
Russia’s unusual announcement of the appointment of a new commander to command Russian forces in Ukraine sent a clear message to the world that Moscow is making every effort to win this war at any cost.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian army general Sergei Surovkin had been appointed “commander of the joint grouping of forces in the areas of special military operations”, a term used by the Kremlin to refer to the war in Ukraine.
The decision came after weeks of successful counterattacks by Ukraine, during which it managed to oust Russian forces from areas that Moscow had declared Russian “forever”.
Since the appointment of this general to this post a few days ago, dozens of Ukrainian towns and villages have been the subject of a violent bombing campaign with missiles and marches, which brings to mind the extensive bombing operations carried out by Russian forces in Syria on controlled areas. by the opposition, including bakeries, health facilities and schools, according to a report Human Rights Watch for the year 2016.
Involvement in Syria
According to his official biography, Surovkin was born in Novosibirsk and is 55 years old.
He served in the conflicts in the 1990s in Tajikistan and Chechnya and, more recently, in the conflict in Syria when Moscow intervened in 2015 in support of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In July, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Surovkin was the commander of the “Southern” forces in Ukraine.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about this move; General Surovkin faces allegations of human rights violations in Chechnya and Syria.
The appointment was welcomed by the Chechen leader and ally of President Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Both called on the Russian military to act more decisively in Ukraine, despite allegations of war crimes against civilians by the Russian army.
photo released, Getty Images
Sergey Sorovikin attends a briefing for the Ministry of Defense in 2017.
Sergei Sorovikin first appeared in the media in August 1991, when a coup was attempted against the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Surovkin, who was an army captain at the time, participated in an army operation against civilian protesters in central Moscow.
Protesters blocked the road in front of a number of military armored vehicles and threw stones and bottles at them, Sorovikin gave the order for armored vehicles to advance, ran over and killed three demonstrators.
scandals
Surovkin was arrested and spent seven months in detention before the trial began, but all charges were dropped on the grounds that he was following orders.
In 1995 he was accused of illegally selling a gun. He was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison with suspended sentence by a military court in Moscow, later the charge was removed from his criminal record.
Sergei Sorovkin graduated from the Military Academy in 2002, quickly became a division commander in Yekaterinburg, and two years later was at the center of another scandal when a close colleague shot himself in Sorovkin’s office.
In 2004, Surovkin was appointed commander of a division in Chechnya, where Russia at the time was struggling to control local anti-Moscow guerrillas.
Surovkin has been publicly accused several times by his subordinates of committing acts of violence against local civilians.
photo released, Getty Images
President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and General Sergei Surovkin in 2017 during the military award ceremony in the Kremlin
Eyewitnesses reported that one of its battalions carried out “cleaning operations” in one of the areas, storming civilian homes, taking dozens of men to a local school yard, beating them, forcing them to lie down on the muddy ground and asking them to stay there in the rain.
Surovkin denied the allegations.
In 2017, Russia played a pivotal role in helping Syrian government forces crack down on dissent across the country and that year appointed Sergei Surovkin commander of the Russian Air Force in Syria, the first time he served in the country. aeronautics.
In November 2017, Sorovikin was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian air and space forces, the first such appointment for an officer with little experience in this branch of the army.
Allegations of violation of human rights
In Syria, military units under Sorovkin’s command have been accused of human rights violations, including the use of chemical weapons and the bombing of hospitals.
In a special report released in 2020 by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Sorovikin was named alongside Russian leaders and some Syrian leaders who may be held responsible for human rights violations during the advance on Idlib governorate between 2019 and 2020.
Human Rights Watch said Russian and Syrian forces deliberately bombed residential areas and civilian infrastructure, and a 2019 New York Times investigation found a similar conclusion.
Moscow has always denied such allegations.
As a result of his work in Syria, Sergey Surovkin was awarded the Order of the Hero of Russia, the country’s highest award.
It has not yet been officially revealed who will succeed him in his previous position, but some Russian media have mentioned the name of General Alexander Dvornikov, who was also a general in the Second Chechen War and also served in Syria.
