Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who knew beforehand in regards to the aborted mutiny towards Russia’s navy management, in line with New York Occasions reporting, was the commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine from October 2022 to this January, when he was reassigned.
The 56-year-old officer, nicknamed “Basic Armageddon” by the Russian media due to his repute for ruthlessness, has not been seen publicly since early Saturday. A number of pro-war Russian blogs reported that the authorities had been investigating navy service members with ties to Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who led the rebellion, however these reviews couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Mr. Prigozhin and Basic Surovikin have identified one another at the very least since Russia’s intervention in Syria’s conflict, the place navy analysts say the overall performed a outstanding position in turning the combating in favor of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Fighters from Mr. Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group had been on the bottom in Syria on the time, and reviews point out that each Wagner and Basic Surovikin used the civil conflict for monetary acquire. A Wagner-linked firm secured a 25 p.c share of earnings from Syrian oil and gasoline manufacturing at fields the mercenaries captured from Islamic State militants, a Russian information web site reported. Basic Surovikin’s spouse owns a phosphate mining enterprise in Syria, in line with an investigation by the group of jailed opposition activist Aleksei Navalny.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Mr. Prigozhin sought a bigger position for Basic Surovikin after it grew to become clear that Russian forces wouldn’t be capable of obtain their navy objectives as rapidly as navy leaders had deliberate.
When he was appointed commander of forces in Ukraine, Mr. Prigozhin referred to as Surovikin “essentially the most competent commander within the Russian Military,” in line with an announcement quoted by Russia’s Reside 24 information company on the time.
Though Basic Surovikin was reassigned in January to command Russia’s air and house forces, he was broadly revered for overseeing a comparatively orderly Russian retreat from the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Kherson final fall.
He was changed in Ukraine by Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who grew to become a daily topic of Mr. Prigozhin’s more and more vituperative rants on Telegram. The transfer was broadly seen as a demotion for Basic Surovikin, and the Russian Protection Ministry mentioned the shake-up would assist enhance “the effectiveness of troop administration.”
Samuel Ramani, an affiliate fellow on the Royal United Companies Institute, a British-based analysis group, mentioned that the overall retains assist amongst Russian troops in Ukraine, which might have made him a beneficial ally to Mr. Prigozhin. He beforehand oversaw the Russian navy’s southern command, which is headquartered in Rostov-on-Don, the town Wagner briefly seized throughout the mutiny.
“I’m certain that there have been some folks within the southern navy district who would have seemingly been loyal to him, and if he gave instructions to to again Prigozhin or work with Prigozhin, they in all probability would have helped his forces are available,” mentioned Mr. Ramani, the writer of a current ebook in regards to the conflict in Ukraine.
In addition to main Russian forces in Syria, Basic Surovikin was in Chechnya within the early 2000s, in line with state information media and his biography on the Russian Protection Ministry’s web site. Human Rights Watch mentioned in 2020 that he was amongst navy leaders who may bear “command duty” for human rights violations in Syria.
He participated in a failed 1991 coup towards Mikhail Gorbachev and spent at the very least six months in jail after troopers underneath his command killed three protesters, however was ultimately launched with out trial, in line with the Jamestown Basis, a conservative analysis group in Washington. In 1995, the group mentioned, he was convicted of arms buying and selling and obtained a suspended sentence, however the conviction was later overturned.
He was positioned on a European Union sanctions listing on Feb. 23, 2022, a day earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine.