Putin brings back General Surovikin for new strikes on Kyiv

According to the British newspaper The Sun, Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering putting General Sergei Surovikin back in command of forces in Ukraine. Western military figures call him “General Armageddon” for the brutal reputation he earned in Syria. Retired British Major General Chip Chapman said Surovikin could be tasked this winter with breaking Ukrainians' will through starvation and massive strikes on Kyiv.

A brutal reputation from Syria

“Surovikin will try to break the will of the population this winter,” retired British Major General Chip Chapman told The Sun. According to him, the general could be given the task of forcing Ukraine into capitulation through starvation and killing as many civilians as possible. Chapman believes Surovikin is capable of unleashing “the total destruction of Kyiv.”

“When you can't succeed on the front line, what's left to try?” Chapman asked. “You try to break the will of the population, the way Russia and Syria did with the Syrian opposition, turning the cities where its supporters lived into places unfit to live in.” It was in Syria that Surovikin earned his reputation as a brutal and unscrupulous commander.

Surovikin's possible return to active duty was confirmed, according to The Sun, by Russian military commentator and retired colonel Viktor Baranets: “Generals like him don't sit idle on the sofa. Russia and its army need generals like that. The Kremlin and the Ministry of Defence are seriously considering how to bring Surovikin — a tough, decisive and influential military commander — into the reality now taking shape at the front.”

Kyiv prepares for a massive strike

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the country is preparing measures in response to a likely massive Russian strike. Writing on Facebook, he said updated intelligence on Russia's preparations for a large-scale attack had been received that same day. “We have set deadlines for completing a significant part of the tasks, and priority measures are already being implemented,” Zelensky wrote after a meeting with government representatives, military command and “key agencies.”

One of the priorities named was protecting the North Bridge in Kyiv from attacks by Russian jet-powered drones. This important transport artery of the Ukrainian capital has been covered since Tuesday morning by a protective anti-drone net that shields nearly the entire structure of the bridge.

From nuclear weapons to Prigozhin's mutiny

Surovikin commanded Russia's military campaign in Ukraine from October 2022 to January 2023. Early in the invasion he pushed for the use of nuclear weapons, after which Putin removed him from the post.

After Surovikin took part in preparing the mutiny led by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in the summer of 2023, he was sent to North Africa to command “reorganised Wagner fighters” in Algeria.

Now, according to some speculation, “General Armageddon” could lead Russian operations aimed at seizing the Ukrainian strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, where Russian forces continue to lose ground, or a new offensive on Kyiv through occupied Chernihiv.

“Will he be able to revive the fighting directly on the front line? No, I don't think so,” Chapman said, commenting on these theories. “But I think he's capable of intensifying strikes deep into the territory — destroying Kyiv and other cities. And that's most likely what this is about.”

Source: novinky.cz