Former top Russian military commander in Ukraine missing after Wagner mutiny

Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin, better known as General Armageddon, has not been since the Wagner group rebellion in June 2023. Many are wondering of the whereabouts of the former top commander of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Al Jazeera reported in July 2023 that the head of the defense committee of the Russian legislature claimed that Surovikin was merely “taking a rest” and was “unavailable at the moment”.

Reportedly, Surovikin enjoyed good relations with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the pro-Russian Wagner mercenary group. The mercenary chief had made a rare public statement praising Surovikin and labeling him as “legendary”.

Surovikin was assigned to lead the Russian troops in Ukraine from October 2022 to January 2023. May hoped that the so-called General Armageddon would improve the situation in the occupied territory.

The New York Times highlighted that Surovikin is well-known for his brutality, corruption, and his vast experience fighting complex wars.

Surovikin is no stranger to the Ukrainian conflict. Before being assigned the command of all the Russian troops in Ukraine on October 8th, he was in charge of leading the invading army in the southern part of the country.

The New York Times claims that, for all practical purposes, Surovikin was leading the Russian troops in Ukraine in all but name.

His promotion occurred just hours after the bridge connecting Russia to Crimea was blown by the Ukrainian army, causing a blow to the logistics and the morale of the Russian troops.

However, he was demoted in January 2023 and replaced by Valery Gerasimov, only three months later and without much explanation.

Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin was born in Novosibirsk in 1966. According to the BBC, he started his military career during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s.

Surovikin was also part of the 1991 August Coup, where Communist hardliners tried to oust Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.

Then a captain, he was connected to the death of three anti-coup protestors in Moscow. Surovikin spent several months in jail but was released after Boris Yeltsin concluded that he was only following orders.

The BBC highlights that in 1995, while studying at the prestigious Frunze Military Academy, Surovikin was suspended for illegally selling a gun to a classmate.

The future General Armageddon claimed it was a setup and the incident was expurgated from his military record.

During the 1990s and the early 2000s, Surovikin saw military action in Tajikistan and Chechnya.

However, it would be his involvement during the Syrian Civil War that would turn Surovikin into General Armageddon.

Russia stepped in during the Syrian Civil War in 2015, aiding the troops of President Bashar Al-Assad.

Surovikin led Russia’s aerospace unit despite having no prior experience with air operations. The BBC remarks that he oversaw the obliteration of much of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

In 2019, Surovikin became the military commander of the Russian troops in Syria for several months. “When performing combat missions in Syria, not for a minute did we forget that we were defending Russia,” he was quoted saying by The Guardian.

Human Rights Watch listed Surovikin, among other Russian military commanders in Syria, as bearing “command responsibility” for human rights violations in Syria during this time.

The Guardian describes that Surovikin brought his “violent Syria’s playbook” to Ukraine with a flurry of rocket attacks against civilian targets, including a major road junction and a children’s playground.

Surovikin was also among those sanctioned by the European Union on February 23, the day before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Many were rightly skeptical that Surovikin would change the tide. One of them was Frederick B. Hodges, a former top U.S. Army commander in Europe who was cited by The New York Times. “All the problems are institutional, deeply rooted flaws — corruption, lack of readiness.”

The New York Times notes that Surovikin is hardly the only member of the Russian military leadership to disappear, be dismissed or perish in the past months. Many experts speculate if Surovikin had prior knowledge of the Wagner rebellion, if he was not an instigator himself.