Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new commander for what he calls “special military operations” in Ukraine, in a new bid to take control of his military on the battlefronts in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the appointment of General Sergei Sorovikin as the commander of the joint group of forces in “military special operations” in Ukraine.
Moscow is marketing its invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation, while Western countries unanimously describe it as a war against Ukraine aimed at forcibly changing the borders of a neighboring country.
Surovykin, who has been promoted through the ranks of the Russian army, is 55 years old, according to a previous presentation about him to the Russian news agency TASS.
He joined the Russian Armed Forces in 1982 and completed his education there and has the experience of leading military operations outside the borders of this country.
He graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 2007 at the same time as his field service.
Since October 2013, he has been the commander of the Eastern Military District.
He participated in Russian military operations in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Chechnya.
Since 2017, after Russia intervened in Syria for the first time in favor of the Bashar al-Assad regime in 2015, his name began to be repeated in the Israeli media.
Since March 2017, Sorovikin has led what the Kremlin’s Defense Ministry describes as “Russia’s military group in Syria.”
In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch described him as among military leaders who may be “responsible for abuses” in Syria.
A few days ago, a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that Russia’s intervention in Syria has killed at least 8,700 civilians, following 241 “massacres” by Kremlin forces since its first intervention in Syria seven years ago.
Before joining his country’s military in Syria, General Sorovikin worked in many roles abroad, beginning in 2000, a year that marked Putin’s leadership of Russia, sometimes as president and sometimes as prime minister.
After becoming known for his brutality in the Russian military, he has since accompanied Putin on several missions outside Russia, where he was imprisoned twice.
In the early 2000s, he worked in Chechnya, according to his biography on the Defense Ministry website and state media.
In its previous report, the British Ministry of Defense described it as saying: “For more than thirty years, the Sorovikken mission has been fraught with corruption and brutality.”
According to the New York Times, General Sorokin spent at least six months in prison after soldiers under his command killed three protesters in Moscow during a failed coup in August 1991, but was eventually released without trial.
According to a document released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank, he was again sentenced in 1995 to probation for illegal gun trafficking, adding that the conviction was later overturned.
The foundation document describes him: “In the army, Sorokin was known for absolute cruelty.”
He was placed on the EU sanctions list on February 23, while on the list of the Russian Air Force General Command.
The sanctions list states: “He is responsible for air operations in Ukraine. Therefore, he is responsible for supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as the stability or security of Ukraine.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
