In July 2016, Lieutenant General Alexander Zhuravlyov was appointed as the commander of the Russian military forces in Syria, replacing Colonel General Aleksandr Dvornikov.[citation needed] He held this post until December 2016, when he was replaced by Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov. For his service in Syria he was given the title of Hero of Russia.[1]
Deputy Chief of General Staff (2017)
Since leaving Syria, Zhuravlyov was promoted to colonel general and appointed Deputy Chief of General Staff. In February 2017, he met with the Vice Chief of Defense Staff of the United Kingdom, General Sir Gordon Messenger to discuss renewed military cooperation in order to prevent any incidents.[2][3]
In January 2018, he once again took command of the contingent of Russian military forces stationed in Syria, having taken over from General Sergey Surovikin.[5]
As commander of the Western Military District, Zhuravlyov was responsible for the Russian troops that invaded northern Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, before Aleksandr Dvornikov was appointed overall commander on 9 April 2022.[7] On 13 May, CNN reported that newly collected evidence identified Zhuravlyov ordering the use of 17 cluster bombs, cluster munition fired from the 300mm Smerch multiple rocket launcher, by the 79th Rocket Artillery Brigade against civilian targets in Kharkiv on 27–28 February.[8]Human Rights Watch investigated the attack and concluded that the Russian forces used BM-30 Smerchcluster munition rockets, which disperse dozens of submunitions or bomblets in the air. As there were no military targets within 400 meters of these strikes and due to the indiscriminate nature of these weapons used in densely populated areas, HRW described these strikes as a possible war crime.[9][10]
He was dismissed as commander of the Western Military District in June 2022.[11]
Sanctions
As a result of Zhuravlyov's involvement in Ukraine, the Government of New Zealand enacted travel ban sanctions on him personally.[12]
^Pinchuk, Alexander; Khudoleyev, Viktor (29 November 2017). Штандарты в надёжных руках [Standards in Safe Hands]. Krasnaya Zvezda (in Russian). Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
^"Exclusive: Russian general who oversaw atrocities in Syria led cluster bomb attacks on civilians in Ukraine". CNN News. By Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase, Tamara Qiblawi, Alex Platt, Victoria Butenko, Darya Tarasova and Maria Avdeeva. May 13, 2022. [1]
^Featherstone, Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase, Tamara Qiblawi, Alex Platt, Victoria Butenko, Darya Tarasova and Maria Avdeeva Graphics by Henrik Pettersson and Connie Chen, Video editing by Oscar (12 May 2022). "Russian general who oversaw atrocities in Syria led cluster bomb attacks in Ukraine". CNN. Retrieved 28 May 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)