Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) toasts with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev next to Sergei Surovikin, commander of the Russian army in Syria, after a ceremony to present state awards to servicemen who fought in Syria, at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 28, 2017. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | beautiful pictures
WASHINGTON – Russia has appointed a new commander to lead all of its forces in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war enters its eighth month.
Sergei Surovikin, an army general who also oversees Russia’s air force, previously commanded Russian forces in Syria. His new role will involve agitating the Russian army after a series of defeats, including heavy losses of troops and equipment, and the capture of thousands of square miles of occupied territory.
The appointment of Surovikin comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to enlist hundreds of thousands of Russian men for war. Putin’s ordering of about 300,000 Russians to join the war in Ukraine is the first time since World War II that Moscow has sent civilians into the army.
The Kremlin’s decision to adopt a partial draft was triggered by a series of astonishing Ukrainian advances in recent weeks.
Last week, Putin stated that four regions of Ukraine now belong to Russia. The Russian leader cited the referendums, widely seen as fraudulent and illegal by Western governments, held in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
“The results are known, widely known,” Putin said on September 30. “There are four new Russian regions,” referring to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. .
After Putin’s speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would submit an “expedited” application for his country to join the NATO military alliance.
Armed with an arsenal of Western weapons, Ukrainian forces have recaptured vast swaths of territory that had been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war. Their battlefield successes undermined the credibility of the Kremlin’s mighty war machine.
But as Ukraine fights to recapture the land village by village, the cost to civilians is enormous.
To date, the UN estimates that the Russian invasion has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 civilians and resulted in more than 8,600 injuries. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights added that the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher.
