During the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, Surovikin commanded a unit that killed three anti-coup demonstrators, for which he was detained for several months but never convicted.[7] He played an important role in the creation of the Main Directorate of the Military Police, a new organisation within the Russian army.[8] Surovikin commanded the Eastern Military District between 2013 and 2017, and in 2017 commanded the Russian group of forces in Syria. He is accredited with turning the tide of the war in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's favour, and is also alleged to have been responsible for strikes on civilian targets during the Russian intervention.[7][9]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Surovikin was initially the commander of the Southern Grouping of Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.[10] On 8 October 2022, he became the commander of all Russian forces invading Ukraine,[11] but was demoted to deputy commander and replaced by Valery Gerasimov in January 2023.[12] In late June 2023, rumors about his arrest emerged, according to unconfirmed reports following alleged involvement with the Wagner Group rebellion.[13][14] Surovikin's daughter claimed to be in contact with her father and insisted that he had not been detained.[15]
By August 1991, he was a captain and commander of the 1st Motor Rifle Battalion of the 15th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, part of the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division. During the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt in Moscow, Surovikin was ordered to send his battalion into the tunnel on the Garden Ring, where three anti-coup demonstrators were killed.[20] After the defeat of the coup, Surovikin was arrested and held under investigation for seven months. The charges were dropped on 10 December because Boris Yeltsin[21] concluded that Surovikin was only following orders. He was promoted to the rank of major afterwards.[22]
Surovikin attended the Frunze Military Academy. In September 1995, he was sentenced to a year of probation by the Moscow garrison's military court for illegally selling weapons. The conviction was overturned after the investigation concluded that Surovikin had agreed to give a fellow student a pistol for use in a competition, unaware of its intended purpose.[23][24]
In 1995, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. Surovikin participated in the Tajikistani Civil War where he commanded a motor rifle battalion. He then became chief of staff of the 92nd Motor Rifle Regiment, chief of staff and commander of the 149th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and chief of staff of the 201st Motor Rifle Division.[19]
In March 2004, Surovikin was accused by Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Tsibizov of beating him up for leaving his post to participate in elections as an observer.[25] In April, division deputy commander for armaments Colonel Andrei Shtakal shot himself in the presence of Surovikin and the district deputy commander after being criticized by Surovikin.[19] In both cases, a military prosecutor found no evidence of guilt.[23]
Chechnya
From June 2004, he led the 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division, permanently stationed in Chechnya to suppress the insurgency during the Second Chechen War.[26][18] After nine soldiers from the division died in the collapse of a farm building on 21 February 2005, an incident officially blamed on an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade, Surovikin publicly promised to "destroy three insurgents for every soldier killed," in spite of the policy that required insurgents to be handed over to authorities.[27] Investigation by independent news organization Novaya Gazeta revealed that the deaths were caused by the accidental discharge of a grenade launcher by drunk soldiers.[28][29] In an April interview with army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, Surovikin complained that rules of engagement, especially the requirement to detain suspected militants instead of shooting them, hindered counter-insurgency operations, and that Chechen fighters were exploiting Russian soldiers' hesitation to fire on insurgents near civilians.[26] For his rhetoric, he gained a reputation in the press as a tough commander with an "iron fist."[30]
In June, Surovikin ordered the Borozdinovskaya cleansing operation to "search for and detain insurgents," in which soldiers of the division's Vostok Battalion burned down houses, beat 87 civilians, killed one elderly man, and abducted eleven civilians.[31] Surovikin categorically denied that the abductions took place,[32] but the company commander responsible was convicted of abuse of power.[33]
Senior command roles
Returning from Chechnya, Surovikin was appointed deputy commander of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army in Voronezh in November 2005, rising to serve as its chief of staff from May 2006 and army commander from April 2008.[18][34]
From November 2011, he headed the working group charged with creation of the Military Police.[36] It was reported that Surovikin was tipped to head the Military Police after it was instituted, but the appointment did not materialise due to the intervention of the Russian Military Prosecutor's Office, according to the Russian media, which presented the situation as a turf conflict between the Defence Ministry and the Military Prosecutor's Office.[37][23] In October 2012, he became the chief of staff of the Eastern Military District. In October 2013, he was appointed commander of the district.[18] On 13 December, Surovikin was promoted to the rank of colonel general.[38]
In September 2017, Surovikin was cited by Russian media as a likely successor to Viktor Bondarev, who was on 26 September relieved of the position of the Commander of the Aerospace Forces.[42][8] According to a report published by RBK Group on 2 November 2017 that cited an anonymous source in the MoD, Surovikin had been appointed Commander of the Aerospace Forces, despite his initial objections.[43] At the end of November 2017, the Russian MoD's Krasnaya Zvezda reported that Surovikin had been appointed Commander of the Aerospace Forces by a presidential decree of 22 November.[44]TASS pointed out that Surovikin became the first combined-arms commander in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union to be put in charge of the Russian or Soviet air forces.[45]
On 28 December 2017, he was made a Hero of the Russian Federation for his leadership of the Group of Forces in Syria.[46] Under his command, a significant turning point in the fight against the Syrian opposition was achieved. The Syrian Government regained over 50% control of Syria by the end of 2017 after a string of successful military campaigns. According to several Russian military commentators, it was Surovikin who turned the tide of the war.[47][48][49][50]
Surovikin took command of the contingent of Russian military forces in Syria again from January to April 2019. Altogether he commanded the Russian forces group in Syria for more than a year, which was longer than any other officer[51] until November 2020, when Lieutenant General Aleksandr Chaiko surpassed his duration in that post.[citation needed]
In 2021, Surovikin was promoted to General of the Army. As one of only a handful of officers at that rank, it prompted speculation that he might be an eventual successor to Valery Gerasimov as Chief of the General Staff.[53]
Russian invasion of Ukraine
In June 2022, it came to light that he was in command of the Southern Grouping of Forces of the Russian Armed Forces in the Southern Ukraine campaign.[10] On 28 September, he was awarded the title Hero of the Luhansk People's Republic.[54] He said in an interview with Russian media that "Our opponent is a criminal regime, while we and the Ukrainians are one people and want the same thing: for Ukraine to be a country that’s friendly to Russia and independent from the West".[55][56] The quote "For the enemies of Russia, the morning does not start with coffee." alludes to these strikes and is attributed to him, although it is most likely apocryphal.
On October 6 the Ukrainian military reported that 86 Shahed 136 kamikaze drones had been launched by Russian forces in total, and between September 30 and October 6 Ukrainian forces had destroyed 24 out of 46 launched in that period.[62]
On 8 October, it was announced that Surovikin would be commanding all Russian forces in Ukraine, succeeding Colonel General Gennady Zhidko.[11] It came to light on 10 October according to sources close to the Kremlin, that Surovikin is a proponent of large-scale attacks by drone and missile on civilian and critical infrastructure,[9] an instance of which occurred that day.[63] On 13 October Surovikin was profiled in Le Monde as a "ruthless Russian general",[64] while two days later CNN reported that he was hated by some of his subordinates.[65] On 18 October Surovikin was reported as saying that "The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense".[66][67][68] On 20 October the Ukrainians had turned to energy rationing.[69] By 22 October, Fortune was headlining the campaign by "Russia launches ‘massive attack’ on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after failures on battlefield", after 1.5 million people were left with no electric utility.[70] On 26 October Politico asked itself the question: "Can Putin’s ‘Butcher of Syria’ save Russia from another rout?"[2]
On 9 November 2022, in a televised meeting with Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Surovikin, made a public statement on Russian media—along with other military staff—recommending a withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson in order to save Russian troops who faced being trapped. In the same TV appearance, Shoigu approved the withdrawal.[71] On 10 November sources in Kyiv said that Surovikin's conduct of the war was more brutal and more disciplined. Ukrainian minister of defence Oleksii Reznikov said that Surovikin was using a "doctrine of terrorists".[72]
By 21 November 2022 some Russian people were asking Surovikin "to step up Moscow's bombing campaign of Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a tactic the Kremlin has suggested is designed to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table." Vladimir Solovyov said: "I appeal to the Hero of Russia Army General Surovikin: Comrade Army General, I ask you to complete the total destruction of energy infrastructure of the Nazi Ukrainian junta."[73]
In May 2023, Surovikin was reported to have been "representing interests" of the Wagner Group in Russia's Ministry of Defense for the last few years.[75] According to CNN, documentary evidence listed Surovikin as an official member of Wagner, with VIP status in 2018, along with 30 other senior Russian military staff.[14][76]
On 24 June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian government, Surovikin appeared on video posted to Telegram appealing to the rebel forces to stop the revolt.[77] He had not appeared in public in the weeks following the rebellion.[78] Some reports suggest that he was arrested, citing anonymous defense ministry officials.[13] Surovikin's daughter, in an alleged interview to a Russian Telegram channel, claimed to be in contact with her father and insisted that he had not been detained.[15] The Wall Street Journal reported on 13 July that Surovikin had been detained, according to "people familiar with the situation."[79]State Duma defense committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov told the media that Surovikin was "on vacation and unavailable,"[80] while Readovka reported that Surovikin was on vacation in Rostov.[81] Reports of his imprisonment were repeatedly denied by the secretary of the Moscow prison watchdog committee.[82]
As of 6 September 2023, Surovikin's biography was removed from the official ministry of defense website since his disappearance.[83]
Head of the CIS Coordinating Committee for Air Defence
On 23 February 2022, Surovikin was added to the European Union sanctions list for being "responsible for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security in Ukraine".[85]
^"Профессия – служить родине" [Occupation – Serving the Motherland]. www.mk.ru (in Russian). Moskovskiy Komsomolets. 29 March 2011. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
^ abcSafronov, Ivan; Muradov, Musa (14 December 2011). "Военную прокуратуру не устроил полицейский кандидат" [Military prosecutor's office did not accept a military police candidate]. Kommersant (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
^Dmitriyevsky, S. M.; Gvareli, B. I.; Chelysheva, O. A. (2009). Международный трибунал для Чечни(PDF) (in Russian). Vol. II. Nizhny Novgorod. pp. 461–462.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Сергей Вальченко; Александр Круглов; Егор Созаев-Гурьев (28 December 2017). ""В плен никого не брать!"". iz.ru. Archived from the original on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2022.