five things to know about General Sergei Surovikin, the new head of the Russian offensive

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Bombing of several cities, deployment of Belarusian forces, strikes on energy infrastructure… Russia launched a counter-attack on Ukrainian soil on Monday, October 10. The numerous missile strikes, in particular, are a response to a series of setbacks in recent weeks on the eastern and southern fronts of the country, where Ukrainian forces have since the end of September taken over nearly 2,500 km2 and 96 localities, according to the president. Ukrainian, Volodymyr Zelensky. Another snub for Russia: the explosion, Saturday, October 8, of part of the Crimean bridge, linking the Ukrainian peninsula annexed in 2014 to Russian territory.

To turn the tide, Vladimir Putin has been betting since Saturday on a new figure at the head of his troops: Sergei Surovikin, promoted to head of the Russian “special military operation”. Before that, this commander was already at the head of the grouping of southern forces in Ukraine. Who is this 55-year-old seasoned general, with a smooth skull and cold gaze, who must allow the Russian army to regain control? Franceinfo lists five things to know about the life of the Russian commander.

He served in Tajikistan and Chechnya

Ukraine is not Sergei Surovikin’s first battleground. After the break-up of the USSR, he participated in the civil war in Tajikistan (1992-1997), then in the second war in Chechnya (1999-2009), opposing the Russian army to the separatists. The independent Russian media Novaya Gazeta (in Russian) describe “an ordinary military career for a Russian officer”, stating that he has “spent his entire career as an infantry soldier”.

The commander forged a sulphurous reputation from his time in Chechnya. A report by the Jamestown Foundation, an American research and analysis institute, says that during this war, Sergei Surovikin “reportedly announced that he would kill three Chechens for every one of his soldiers killed. In 2004, Surovikin (…) was accused of physically assaulting subordinate officers”.

He was briefly imprisoned after an attempted coup

In 1991, Sergei Surovikin took part, according to Novaia Gazeta, to the coup aimed at overthrowing Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Surovikin, a captain at the time, ordered the men of his unit to attack the barricades of pro-democracy demonstrators. Three civilians were killed, which earned the putschist seven months in prison, who was eventually released for having “just followed an order”according to Boris Yeltsin, first president of the Russian Federation. The Head of State even promotes him to the rank of major for “to have discharged his military duty brilliantly”. Sergei Surovikin was also found guilty of theft and sale of arms in 1995, but had his conviction overturned for “exculpatory circumstances”.

He led Russian troops in Syria

In 2017, Sergei Surovikin led Russian forces in Syria, which supported the Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. Three years later, he is suspected of having participated in the bombardments of civilians in the city of Idleb and the surrounding area. In a 2020 report, the NGO Human Rights Watch points the finger at him along with nine other senior Russian and Syrian officials in unlawful attacks targeting hospitals, schools and camps for displaced persons.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, stresses for his part that the new Russian commander-in-chief “committed military crimes in Chechnya, Syria, coordinated operations in Donbass”. “He is guilty of thousands of civilian deaths. Surovikin must be prosecuted as a war criminal. His relatives must be subject to severe punishment”he insists.

However, his commitment to Syria earned him the title of Hero of the Russian Federation in 2017. “for the courage and heroism he displayed in the discharge of his military duty”according to the Russian Ministry of Defense (in Russian).

He was named boss of the air force

Also in 2017, Sergei Surovikin was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The Russian Armed Forces Newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda announces his nomination by praising the character, affirming his “maximum success in the fight against international terrorism” in Syria. “Sergei Surovikin is the first ground army commander of the Russian Air Force in history”precise Novaya Gazeta.

He is considered brutal and corrupt

The Russian commander is known to be a brutal and corrupt man, according to many observers. The British intelligence services point out in a report that “for more than 30 years, Surovikin’s career has been marred by allegations of corruption and brutality”reports The Guardian (in English). Oliver Caroll, British journalist for The Economistsays for his part that a senior Ukrainian official described the new Russian commander-in-chief as “a cruel man with a criminal record”adding that “Surovikine is a butcher”.

“It is highly symbolic that Sergei Surovikin, the only officer who ordered the shooting of revolutionaries in August 1991 and who actually killed three people, is now in charge of this last ditch effort to restore the Soviet Union.”to analyse on Twitter Greg Yudin, director of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.

The appointment of Sergei Surovikin “likely reflects an effort by the Russian national security community to improve the conduct of the operation”believes for its part the British Ministry of Defence, which nevertheless tempers: “He will likely have to contend with an increasingly divided Russian Defense Ministry, which has few resources to achieve the political goals it has set for itself in Ukraine.”

Dimitri Minic, specialist in the Russian army at the Russia/NIS center of the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri), quoted in Le Figaro (subscribers article)judges that, given his CV, this promotion of Sergei Surovikin is “a strong signal sent to critics of the Kremlin, whose actions are considered too timorous. The brutality and violations of rules and morals that Surovikin has shown appeal to die-hard nationalists.”


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