SOUROVIKIN. Russian General Sergei Surovikin has been appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine. Honored with the title of “war hero”, he collects service records and has a reputation as a very tough man. Portrait.
He was appointed commander-in-chief of the “special military operation” on Saturday, October 8, 2022. Unlike his predecessor, his name is known and it sends shivers down your spine: Sergei Surovikin. At 55, the army general – rank obtained on August 16, 2021 – who was until now in charge of the southern groups mobilized in the war in Ukraine is rising to a central role in the conflict. This appointment is a message that Vladimir Putin wants to send to his troops but also to the West because Sergei Surovikin has the reputation of a “ruthless” man for whom the “willingness to vigorously carry out all orders prevails” over everything. the rest according to a report by the Jamestown Foundation, an American defense policy think tank consulted by France info. With the general in charge, the war in Ukraine is about to enter a new, certainly more violent phase.
On the Russian side, the arrival of Sergei Surovikin is supposed to re-motivate the soldiers in the ranks at a time when all intelligence notes supply problems and a lack of commitment among the Russian troops who have been stalling since the beginning of the summer. and blame the Ukrainian counter-offensives since September. Vis-à-vis the West, on the other hand, the new Russian warlord is not reassuring. The service record of the career soldier raises fears of overflows and devastating strikes. The airstrikes launched on kyiv and all the major cities of Ukraine on Monday October 10, hours after the appointment of Sergei Surovikin as head of the operation, are the first sign of the brutality of the military and its strategy of war.
Who is Sergei Surovikin?
At 55, Sergei Surovikin has spent more than 30 years in the service of the Russian army. Graduated in 1987, at the age of 21, from the Frunze Higher Combined Arms Command School in Omsk, he commanded his first motorized rifle battalions as soon as he left. He quickly became a captain in 1991 and successively joined the Frunze Military Academy and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, two establishments from which he graduated with honors. These passages in the military academies earned him to climb the ranks until becoming lieutenant general in 2010, colonel general in 2013 and army general in 2021.
In addition to his ranks, Sergei Surovikin was placed at the head of prestigious formations such as the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 2008 to 2010, and was even appointed in 2017 by presidential decree Commander of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation, a very powerful joint group. The soldier is also decorated with the gold medal of the Hero of the Russian Federation which was given to him by Vladimir Putin in person on December 28, 2017.
Sergei Surovikin’s feats of arms
After 30 years in the ranks of the Russian army, the native of the USSR had time to take part in major operations. Among Sergei Surovikin’s most significant interventions are the war in Afghanistan, the second Chechnya war and even Syria. Sergei Surovikin also took part in the war in Ukraine by commanding the troops of the southern groups. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it was he who led the operation to encircle the cities of Gorskoye and Zolotoye in the Donbass before they entered the People’s Republic of Lugansk. In the Ukrainian camp, Surovikin is held responsible for the bombardments on Odessa, in particular those having targeted residential buildings and holiday camps.
Between March and December 2017, he was the commander of Russian forces in Syria, committing numerous abuses. In a report dating from 2020, the NGO Human Rights Watch specified that during assaults he led in the Middle Eastern country, the soldier would have ordered bombardments without making distinctions between the soldiers, the armed groups and civilians. Despite these bloody and murderous acts of war, targeting civilians without distinction, he was decorated in December 2017 “Hero of the Russian Federation for the courage and heroism he showed in the exercise of his military duty in Syrian Arab Republic.”
In comments reported by bfmtvEmmanuel Dupuy, consultant in the fields of defence, security and armaments, indicated that Sourovikine had a disturbing nickname, “Armagedon” – adding that “during the last part of the campaign in Syria, he had done the same [qu’en Ukraine] with disproportionate fire aimed indiscriminately at civilians and soldiers”. Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador to Russia, considered on the continuous news channel that the commander was carrying out a policy of terror; for her, the strikes that occurred in Ukraine this Monday, October 10, 2022 “are militarily useless but spectacular strikes, it is a warning that there will be no new strikes on Crimea”.
Serve Surovikin and the Moscow Putsch
Sergei Surovikin has not only served his country abroad, he also defended the Kremlin on Russian territory during the Moscow putsch in 1991. The soldier was at the head of military units sent against pro-democracy demonstrators . The man opened fire to disperse the crowd and rolled over the roadblocks with his military column killing three. Arrested and sentenced after the defeat of the coup attempt, Sergei Surovikin is released by the then President, Boris Yeltsin. The Head of State also ordered the elevation in rank to congratulate the soldier for his perfect execution of orders. These apparently privileged relations between Surovikin and the upper echelons of Russian power have fueled cases of corruption according to a British intelligence report consulted by The Guardian which reports that “for more than 30 years, Surovikin’s career was marred by allegations of corruption and brutality”.
Surovikin, first known Russian operations chief
Appointed Commander-in-Chief of Russian operations in the war in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, is the first man to occupy this position and whose identity is known. The name of his predecessor has never been confirmed although the Russian media mentions an Alexander Dvornikov. The very rare decision to make the information public is not insignificant, it allows the Kremlin to meet the expectations of Russian politicians: it must give the impression of putting an end to the secrets surrounding the war in Ukraine, the Russian Parliament having called on the army and the Kremlin to “stop lying”. The general’s choice is also a way of assuring politicians that the situation in Ukraine will again become favorable to Russia thanks to a tougher war strategy. The appointment of Sergei Surivikin is in a way a response to the explosion of the Crimean bridge and should allow Russia to no longer accuse defeats against Ukraine.