Senior Russian military officers, including General Sergei Surovikin, former commander of Moscow’s armed forces in Ukraine, were arrested as part of the Wagner Group’s uprising, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday, citing sources close to the trial. to stand.
The general, who commanded Russian forces in Syria and later in the invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24 last year, was detained and interrogated, according to the same sources, along with other high-ranking officers who were arrested, suspended or dismissed.
Surovikin, known as “General Armageddon” for the bombings he undertook in Syria, was not charged with any crime, but was reportedly aware of the rebellion plans of the leader of the mercenary group Wagner.
Yevgeny Prigozhin left Ukraine, where his troops were reportedly attacked by Russian troops, and on the night of June 23-24, his soldiers took the strategic city of Rostov (southern Russia) without resistance, after which they then marched towards Moscow to overthrow the city. the military leaders did not stop an initiative until their columns were just over 125 miles from the capital, in an agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Surovikin’s arrest, without official confirmation and now reported by the WSJ, is part of a campaign by the Kremlin to remove officials suspected of disloyalty.
With the general, the WSJ reported, at least 13 senior officers were held for questioning, some later released, and about 15 were suspended or dismissed.
Neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Defense Ministry responded to the paper’s requests for confirmation.
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, said in a video circulating on Russian social media this week that Surovikin was simply resting and “unavailable”.
According to one of the newspaper’s sources, Colonel General Andrey Yudin and Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, were also detained and then released after being suspended and their movement restricted and under observation.
Among other figures arrested is former Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who was deputy defense minister and known as “the butcher of Mariupol”, and who joined Prigozhin’s Wagner group.
Surovikin was last seen in a video released on June 23, looking distressed and holding a gun in his right hand, urging Prigozhin and his mercenaries to cease their rebellion.
Since the end of June, the Kremlin has begun dismantling the Wagner group, which has played a relevant role in Ukraine, responsible for the recent capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk province (eastern ), and a tool for projecting of Russian power in the Middle East, especially in Syria, on the African continent.
Source: DN
