Meet ‘General Armageddon’, the fearsome new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine

A notorious record

His fearsome battlefield record had earned Surovikin nicknames such as the “fierce one” and “General Armageddon”, the ‘Financial Times’ said in a report. ‘The Guardian’ report described him as the “notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s”, and ‘The New York Times’ quoted a Human Rights Watch report from 2020 putting him among the military leaders who might have had “command responsibility” for human rights violations in Syria.

On February 23 this year, a day before Russian troops marched into Ukraine, Gen. Surovikin was put on a list of individuals sanctioned by the European Union, Western media reports said.

“Surovikin is like Marshal Zhukov,” the ‘Financial Times’ report quoted Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based think tank Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, as saying. “He is a tough guy who knows how to run a war. He’s a real beast, not some dumb vodka-drinking guy or a pseudo-intellectual. He’s a real fighter who isn’t scared to tell the higher-ups the truth,” Pukhov told the ‘Financial Times’.

Marshal Georgy Zhukov was a legendary Soviet general who led the Red Army in some of its most consequential victories of World War II.

On Monday, as a barrage of rockets hit civilian areas in Ukraine, ‘The Guardian’ quoted a former defence official who the report said had worked with Surovikin: “I am not surprised to see what happened this morning in Kyiv. Surovikin is absolutely ruthless, with little regard for human life.”

“I am afraid his (Surovikin’s) hands will be completely covered in Ukrainian blood,” the anonymous official told ‘The Guardian’.

‘The New York Times’ report quoted Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a defence research institute based in Virginia, US, as saying: “He (Surovikin) is known as a pretty ruthless commander who is short with subordinates and is known for his temper.”

Many roles in a long career

According to profiles of Gen Surovikin published in multiple Western media outlets, he was already holding an important position in the leadership of the military offensive in Ukraine, even though he had not been formally named commander.

Before the war began, he had served in a range of roles in the Russian military, and had been considered a potential chief of the general staff, the overall head of all wings of the armed forces. He is a former head of Russia’s air force, the ‘Financial Times’ said.

Surovikin had served in Chechnya in the early years of this century, and had been leader of the Russian forces that intervened in Syria in 2015 on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. ‘The Guardian’ reported that he had told military colleagues in Moscow in 2017 that “when performing combat missions in Syria, not for a moment did we forget that we were defending Russia”.

Can he fix Russia’s problems in the war?

The appointment of Gen Surovikin has come at a time when Western media has been reporting successes for Ukrainian forces, and serious setbacks for President Vladimir Putin. Russia is said to be fighting shortages of manpower and munitions, and a mobilisation drive announced by Putin is, according to Western sources, very unpopular.

Along with his reputation for brutality and corruption, Surovikin is considered to be a competent general. “Surovikin knows how to fight with bombers and missiles — that’s what he does,” Gen Kyrylo O Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, had said in June, ‘The New York Times’ reported.

“Surovikin is the most able commander in the Russian army,” ‘The Guardian’ quoted Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private militia Wagner Group, as saying. He is a “legendary figure, he was born to serve his motherland faithfully,” Prigozhin said, according to a statement from Concord, a company he is associated with, ‘The Guardian’ report said.

Western media, however, pointed out that given the deep-seated institutional and structural issues with the Russian military, personnel changes such as the appointment of Surovikin may not be enough to make a dramatic difference.

“That is not going to solve all their problems,” ‘The New York Times’ quoted Frederick B Hodges, a former top US Army commander in Europe as saying. “All the problems are institutional, deeply rooted flaws — corruption, lack of readiness.”