Wagner forces train Belarusian army
A top military commander dubbed “General Armageddon” for using ruthless tactics has been sacked by the Kremlin after going missing, Russian media reports have revealed.
Sergey Surovikin, a former commander of the Russian war effort in its illegal Ukraine invasion, has reportedly lost his job as the head of the country’s aerospace forces.
An unnamed person familiar with the situation told RBC, a Russian outlet, that Surovikin was dismissed from his role overseeing the aerospace forces and has since been placed on “short-term leave”.
Surovikin had taken the place of leading Russian General Gennady Zhidko, 58, earlier this year.
This week, Zhidko was found dead after struggling with a “lengthy illness”.
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Zhidko took over the management of the Russian Army in Ukraine two months after the invasion began in February 2022.
He lost the job to Surovikin less than six months later after he failed to deliver on Putin’s goal of conquering the city of Kharkiv.
But Surovikin has now appeared to have fallen out of favour with Putin. The general has not been seen in public since June.
He was last seen in a video urging members of the Wagner Group to stand down during their attempted coup on June 24.
But documents leaked back in June revealed that Surovikin had in fact been a secret VIP member of Wagner Group.
He had been assigned a personal VIP Wagner registration number as early as 2018, a document obtained by the Dossier Center indicated.
The commander was reportedly listed among at least 30 other senior Russian military and intelligence officials.
There was no evidence to suggest Surovikin was on Wagner’s payroll, but VIP membership hinted at the close link between the Russian military and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary group.
Reports have previously emerged claiming Surovikin was arrested over his closeness with Prigozhin and his support for the mutiny in June.
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He was allegedly placed under “house arrest” and his family told to keep a low profile to ensure he is “forgotten.”
Prigozhin sent his mercenary thugs storming towards the Russian capital in June after taking control of military headquarters in southern Russia.
His troops later stood down when they were reportedly just 120 miles from Moscow.
It came after he repeatedly berated Moscow for its meagre war efforts and was later exiled to Belarus as punishment.
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