Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has appointed a new commander of the armed forces in Ukraine as Moscow seeks to change its declining fortunes.
Army General Sergei Surovikin will take over as commander of the joint group of Russian forces in Ukraine with immediate effect, drawing on the experience of the Second Chechen War and campaigns in Syria and Tajikistan, Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.
Surovikin previously held command of the Southern Group in June and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2017.
His Chechen war experience, in which he led the guard’s 42nd Motor Rifle Division, will draw scrutiny as a campaign filled with allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses and marked by his brutality.
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Russian troops broke into a school in the rural community of Beslan in 2004 after a three-day standoff with Chechen militants, with 330 of the 1,100 hostages, mostly children, killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, commander of the Russian forces in Syria, attend a state awards ceremony for military personnel who have served in Syria at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on December 28, 2017.
(Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin via Reuters)
And human rights organizations said Moscow’s warplanes in Syria deliberately targeted civilians and rescuers during his campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The invasion of Ukraine has already resulted in similar war crimes allegations, with 16,000 investigations opened in June alone. Ukrainian forces uncovered mass graves in the cities of Bucha and Izyum after reclaiming them from Russian forces, with evidence suggesting mass executions.
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Another incident involved Russian forces bombing a theater in Mariupol which had clearly made an appeal to leave it standing while the children were inside.
Satellite images captured by Maxar show the Mariupol Drama Theater in Ukraine before and after an airstrike on March 16, 2022. The word “children” can be seen in white letters.
(Satellite image © 2022 Maxar Technologies)
“We see an increase every day [in investigations]”Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said about the cases.” We are talking about people who did not come only as military fighters … but also came to rape, kill civilians, plunder, humiliate and so on. “
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Estonia in April accused Russia of genocide and other war crimes and urged the international community to open an investigation into the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine.
Families wait to board a train at Kramatorsk Central Station as they flee the eastern Donbas region city of Kramatorsk in early April.
(FADEL SENNA / AFP via Getty Images)
Estonian ambassador to Ukraine Mariana Betsa called the Estonian parliament’s vote to recognize the Russian campaign as genocide a “truly historic decision” and that “Russia must take full responsibility for its horrific crimes”.
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Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Fox News Digital in September that the world “needs to see Putin, along with his accomplices, in the dock” face a court of possible genocide.
