Surovkin was awarded in 2017 by President Putin for his 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 operation”, a term the Kremlin uses to refer to the war in Ukraine.
The decision came following weeks of successful counter-attacks by Ukraine, during which it managed to drive Russian forces out of areas Moscow had declared Russian “forever”.
Since the appointment of this general to this position a few days ago, dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns have been subjected to a violent bombing campaign with missiles and marches, which brings back to memory the comprehensive bombing operations carried out by the Russian forces in Syria on opposition-controlled areas, 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 he is 55 years old.
He had served in conflicts in the 1990s in Tajikistan and Chechnya, and most recently in the conflict in Syria when Moscow intervened in 2015 to support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In July, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Surovkin was the commander of the “South” forces in Ukraine.
Human rights activists expressed concern regarding 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 have called on the Russian military to act more decisively in Ukraine, despite accusations of war crimes once morest civilians by the Russian army.
picture released, Getty Images
Sergey Sorovikin participates in a briefing for the Ministry of Defense in 2017.
Sergei Sorovikin first appeared in the media in August 1991 when a coup was attempted once morest the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Surovkin, who was an army captain at the time, participated in an army operation once morest civilian demonstrators in central Moscow.
The demonstrators blocked the road in front of a number of military armored vehicles and threw stones and bottles at them. Sorovikin gave orders to the armored vehicles to advance, and they 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 given a one-year suspended prison sentence by a military court in Moscow, later the charge was removed from his 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 guerrilla fighters.
Surovkin was publicly accused several times by his subordinates of committing acts of violence once morest local civilians.
picture released, Getty Images
President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and General Sergei Surovkin in 2017 during the military awards ceremony in the Kremlin
Eyewitnesses reported that one of his battalions carried out “cleansing operations” in one of the areas, storming civilian homes, taking dozens of men to the courtyard of a local school, beating them, forcing them to lie on the muddy ground and asking them to stay there in the rain.
Surovkin rejected the accusations.
In 2017, Russia was playing a critical role in helping Syrian government forces quell dissent across the country, and that year he appointed Sergei Surovkin as commander of Russia’s military aviation in Syria, the first time he served in the Air Force.
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 military.
Accusations of human rights violations
In Syria, military units under Sorovkin’s command have been accused of human rights abuses, including the use of chemical weapons and the bombing of hospitals.
In a special report issued in 2020, by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Sorovikin was named along with Russian leaders and some Syrian leaders who might be held responsible for human rights violations during the advance on Idlib governorate between 2019 and 2020.
Human Rights Watch alleged that 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 accusations.
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.
