MOSCOW: The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday appointed Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, amid a fierce war between Russia and Ukraine. This is the third senior military appointment made by Moscow in the past week amid continuing military setbacks. The appointment follows the alleged dismissals of commanders of two of Russia’s five military regions earlier this week.
Russia’s strategy behind the appointment of Sergei Surovikin as a new general to lead the invasion of Ukraine has taken everyone by surprise. 55-year-old Surovikin was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia. He has led Russia’s Air and Space Forces since 2017. According to the Russian Defense Ministry website, he also commanded a guard division stationed in Chechnya during Moscow’s war against Islamic rebels in 2004. Along with this, he was also honored for his service in Syria in the year 2017.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Surovikin had been appointed commander of joint group forces in areas of special military operations, using the Kremlin’s term for the offensive. The decision was announced after Kyiv pushed back Moscow’s forces in recent weeks in areas that the Kremlin had declared to be Russia forever.
Shocks in war with Russia and Ukraine
A 19-km-long Kerch Strait Bridge, a vital link between Crimea and the Russian mainland, was damaged in an explosion and fire on Saturday, partially collapsing a road leading to the peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an inquiry into the incident. It was called a ‘terrorist act’ by an official. Ukraine has not officially commented. Russian forces were driven out of much of the northeastern Kharkiv region by a Ukrainian counter-offensive in early September. Which allowed Kyiv to recapture thousands of square kilometers of territory.
Russian troops also lost the Lyman transport hub in the southern Kherson region as well as in eastern Ukraine. These failures led to increasing criticism of the military leadership, including the elite. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called for the firing of a top general last week, while a senior lawmaker Andrei Kartpolov urged military officials to stop “lying” about the situation on the battlefield.
