Wed 23 August 2023:
Sergei Surovikin, a former leader of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, has been stripped of his duties as chief of the nation’s aerospace forces, a prominent journalist in Russia and media outlets have reported.
On his Telegram channel on Tuesday, Alexei Venediktov, the well-connected former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station, said that Surovikin had been fired and cited an official decree. After his deposition, Surovikin will remain in the defense ministry, according to Venediktov.
There was no official confirmation of Venediktov’s report, though the Russian-language RBC media outlet later on Tuesday also reported that Surovikin has been dismissed, citing its own sources.
“Army General Sergei Surovikin has been relieved of his post in connection with the transition to another job and is at the disposal of (the Ministry of Defence),” RBC said.
One of the paper’s sources said Surovikin “is currently on short-term leave”.
Surovikin earned the nickname “General Armageddon” during Russia’s military intervention in Syria’s civil war.
In October, he was placed in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine but, in January, that role was handed to Gerasimov and Surovikin was made his deputy.
Surovikin commanded Russian forces in Ukraine from October 2022 to January 2023. He was the commander who ordered the departure of Russian soldiers from Kherson, Ukraine, in November 2022.
The Russian general has not been seen in public since the short-lived mutiny in June by the Wagner mercenary group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, against Russia’s defence establishment.
Surovikin was seen as one of Prigozhin’s most important partners in the regular Russian army, as well as in the Wagner commander’s power battle with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Surovikin appeared in a video during the mutiny, encouraging Prigozhin to step down. Surovikin was being investigated for alleged cooperation in the insurrection, according to Russian and foreign news sources following the Wagner incident.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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