Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed General Sergei Surovikin to lead Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, and it took no time at all for the infamous commander to bring his tactics from the Middle East to Europe.
Surovikin’s appointment represents the first time Russian troops in Ukraine will all answer to a single commander. The general first gained notoriety in 1991 for ordering Russian soldiers to fire on protesting civilians in Moscow in the final months of the Soviet Union. He displayed similar brutality when Putin deployed him to Syria in 2017, allegedly ordering the indiscriminate bombings of Aleppo and other anti-government strongholds.
Surovikin has also been accused of complicity in the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Surovikin has been imprisoned in Russia twice over his career, once for selling weapons and again for ordering the shooting of civilians in Moscow, according to the Guardian.
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Surovikin was a captain at the time of the Moscow incident. He fought alongside Soviet loyalists who attempted a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. He drove a vehicle through pro-democracy barricades in the Capital and ordered his soldiers to fire on civilians, killing three people.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, praised Putin’s decision to appoint Surovikin this weekend.
“Surovikin is the most able commander in the Russian army,” Prigozhin said, according to the Guardian. “He was born to serve his motherland faithfully. Having received an order in 1991, Surovikin was that officer who without hesitation got in his tank and went forward to save his country.”
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Intelligence experts have warned that Surovikin’s appointment could also signal that Putin is moving one step closer to ordering the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The decision to use such weapons would have vast consequences for Russia, and Putin would need to have commanders on the ground willing to carry out the order.
“So they have already signaled their intent, but they would need commanders who would have the capability to do it,” Military analyst and head of McKenzie Intelligence Forbes McKenzie told Sky News. “This is a man who has used chemical weapons in recent history, so that demonstrates capability.”
It comes as no surprise then that unprecedented numbers of missiles and shells started raining down on Ukraine’s most populous cities on Monday, just days after Surovikin’s appointment.
Images from the streets of Kyiv and more than a dozen other cities show missiles struck residential buildings, offices, parks and even children’s playgrounds over the course of a four-hour barrage.
Putin framed the attack as revenge for Friday’s bombing of the Kerch Bridge, a major thoroughfare connecting Russia and Crimea.
Some argue that the offensive signals that Putin is allowing Surovikin to usher in a new, more brutal phase in his war against Ukraine. Strategic intelligence expert and author of “Putin’s Playbook” Rebekah Koffler warned that Russia lacks the ordnance to sustain such high-volume missile attacks long term, however.
