Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disastrous war against Ukraine is faltering. Now, there is a new general in charge – with a reputation for brutality.
After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than the Russian military has captured in the past six months, the Russian Defense Ministry last Saturday named Sergei Surovykin as its new commander-in-chief for war operations.
Notably, he previously played a key role in Russia’s operations in Syria – in which Russian warplanes caused widespread destruction in rebel-held areas – as the Supreme Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
CNN spoke with a former Russian air force lieutenant, Gleb Irisov, who served under him in Syria.
He said Surovikin was “very close to the Putin regime” and “never had political ambitions, so he always executed a plan exactly as the government wanted.”
Analysts say Surovikin’s appointment is highly unlikely to change the way Russian forces conduct war, but that it speaks to Putin’s displeasure with previous administration operations. It is also, in part, likely intended to “mollify” the nationalist and pro-war base within Russia itself, according to Mason Clark, head of Russia at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has called on Russia to “take more drastic measures” including using “low-yield nuclear weapons” in Ukraine after recent setbacks, welcomed the appointment of Surovikin, who first saw service in Afghanistan in the 1980s before commanding a unit in the Second Chechen War in 2004. The praise from Kadyrov, who is a key Putin ally, is perhaps significant as he is notorious for crushing any form of dissent.
“I have personally known Sergey very well for almost 15 years. I can definitely say that he is a real general and warrior, an experienced, headstrong and proactive commander who always takes patriotism, honor and respect above all else,” Kadyrov posted on social media, following the news of Surovikin’s appointment Last Saturday. “The joint military team is now in safe hands,” he added.
Irisov, Surovikin’s former subordinate, left his five-year career in the armed forces after his time in Syria because his own political views conflicted with what he experienced. “Of course, you understand who is right and who is wrong,” said Irisov. “I’ve seen a lot of things when I was in the system.”
Irisov then began what he hoped would be the beginning of a career as an international journalist, as a military reporter for the Russian state news agency TASS. His wife worked there and felt at the time that it was “the only mainstream news agency” that tried to cover the news in an “unbiased” way, with “some opportunity for free speech,” she said.
“Everything changed” on February 24, 2022, when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began and TASS received orders from the FSB security service and the Ministry of Defense “that everyone will be prosecuted if they do not carry out the propaganda plan,” Irisov said.
He had family in Kyiv, was hiding in bomb shelters and told CNN he knew “nothing could justify this war.” He also knew from his military contacts that there were already many casualties in the early days of the war.
“For me it was obvious from the beginning,” Irisov recalls. “I tried to explain to people that this war will lead to the collapse of Russia … it will be a great tragedy not only for Ukrainians but also for Russia.”
Irisov fled Moscow with his pregnant wife and young child on March 8, 2022, after standing against the invasion. He had resigned from his job at TASS and signed petitions and an open letter against the war, he told CNN. After traveling to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and finally Mexico, where they contacted the US embassy to ask for help, they are now working to start a new life in West Virginia.
While serving at Latakia Air Base in Syria in 2019 and 2020, the 31-year-old says he worked on aviation security and air traffic control, coordinating flights with Damascus’ civilian airlines. He says he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke with high-ranking officers under control.
“He made a lot of people very angry – they hated him,” Irisov said, describing how the “direct” and “direct” general was disliked at headquarters because of the way he tried to apply infantry experience to the air force.
Irisov says he understands that Surovikin had strong ties to the Kremlin-sanctioned private military company, the Wagner Group, which operates in Syria.
The Kremlin denies any links to Wagner and insists that private military companies are illegal in Russia.
Surovikin, whose military career began in 1983, has at least one checkered history.
In 2004, according to Russian media accounts and at least two think tanks, he reprimanded a subordinate so severely that the subordinate committed suicide.
And a book by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank says that during the failed coup attempt against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, soldiers under Surovikin’s command killed three protesters, prompting Surovikin to at least six months in prison.
CNN reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment on Surovikin’s appointment and allegations of heavy-handed leadership.
In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named him as “someone who can bear command responsibility” for dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war” during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive Syria. The attacks have killed at least 1,600 civilians and displaced some 1.4 million people, according to HRW, citing UN figures.
During his time in Syria, the now 56-year-old was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
In February this year, Surovikin was sanctioned by the European Union in his capacity as head of the Aerospace Forces “for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as stability or security in Ukraine.”
Irisov believes there are three reasons why he has been put in charge of Ukraine now: his proximity to the government and Putin; his cross-professional experience with both infantry and air force; and his summer experience commanding Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Crimea. These are areas Putin is trying to control “at all costs,” Irisov said.
Just two days after Surovikin’s appointment on Saturday, Russia launched its heaviest bombing campaign in Ukraine since the early days of the war.
Surovikin “is more familiar with cruise missiles, perhaps he used his connections and experience to organize this chain of devastating attacks,” Irisov said, referring to reports that cruise missiles were among the weapons developed by Russia in this latest burst of attacks.
But Clark, of the ISW, suggests the general’s promotion is “more of a framing thing to inject new blood into the Russian command system” and “put on that tough nationalist face”.
His appointment “was widely praised by various Russian military bloggers as well as by Yevgeny (Prigozhin), who is the financier of the Wagner Group,” Clark said.
He believes what is happening now is a reflection of what happened in April, when another commander, Alexander Dvornikov, was appointed commander-in-chief of operations in Ukraine.
“Likewise, before that he was the commander of one of the groups of Russian forces and he had a master’s reputation in Syria, like Surovikin for brutality, earning this sort of ‘butcher of Aleppo’ name,” Clark said.
Dvornikov was also seen at the time as the commander “who was going to turn things around in Ukraine and get the job done,” he added. “But a single commander is not going to be able to change how messed up Russian command and control is at this point in the war or the low morale of Russian forces.”
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, also told CNN this week that Surovikin’s appointment “reflects the prevalence of many hard-line voices in Russia … calling for Putin to make changes and bring someone who would be willing to carry out these merciless attacks.’
Clark explains that “from what we’ve seen, it’s very likely that Putin is involved in decision-making at a very tactical level and in some cases bypasses senior Russian military officials to interact directly on the battlefield.”
Surovikin personally signed Irisov’s resignation papers from the air force, he says. Now, Irisov sees him put in charge of operations in Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine – but what impact the general will or can have is not yet clear.
According to Clark, “there is no good option in the Kremlin if Surovikin does not perform…
