June 30, 2024.
Russian top military general, Deputy Commander Sergei Surovikin, who was responsible for leading the one-time Russian invasion of Ukraine is said to have gone missing since Saturday as nobody knows about his whereabouts.
Prior to that, it was reported that Surovikin knew about the Wagner revolution because the general had a well-known association with the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and for that reason, Surovikin might have potentially faced some interrogations about the mutiny which the Russian President Vladimir Putin described as an “Attempted Civil War.” There have been reports of Surovikin’s arrest but those reports have not yet been confirmed by Russian authorities. United States intelligence said to the New York times that they are going to investigate whether Deputy commander Surovikin had a role in orchestrating this attempted civil war in Russia. However, Kremlin downplayed the reports of the Military general’s possible affiliations with the Wagner group and mentioned that there would be many speculations in times to come.
The senior army general who was nicknamed “The Armageddon” because of the reputation for his ruthlessness has not been in public view since Saturday after the failed Wagner revolution. He was last seen in a video, urging Prigozhin to give up his march to Moscow which was aimed to topple the top military powers of Russia.
Surovikin, the head of Russian aerospace forces now and the former General of the Ukraine invasion was given total control over the Ukraine invasion on the October of last year where he had about 30000 soldiers under his command. His command was welcomed by Prigozhin at that time as he said that Surovikin was born to serve the motherland. Reviewing his performance, the top Russian diplomats and the Russian defence minister said that Surovikin boosted the discipline in the forces along with more organised attacks on the Ukraine infrastructure. Wagner leader Prigozhin also mentioned that Surovikin is one of the most able leaders in the Russian military. But he was replaced from this position of top commander of Russian military in the beginning of this year.
The attempted Wagner mutiny sparked a large-scale purge in the Russian military along with test for loyalty inside the ministry of defence.
Another of Russia’s top military official Valery Gerasimov is also said to be missing as he was not seen after the Wagner started its march towards Moscow with a demand for Gerasimov to be handed over to them. He was also said to be missing on Tuesday when President Putin thanked the military for preventing a potential civil war.
Earlier, Wagner, a Russian private mercenary group who had their operations in Ukraine started a march towards Moscow to take out the top military leadership which included the Army General and the Defense minister of Russia. However, this march came to an end when the group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin decided to negotiate with the Belarusian President Lukashenko and agreed to retreat to Belarus and Russia dropped all their investigation charges towards the Wagner group. Prigozhin is confirmed to be at Belarus presently and it is confirmed that the Wagner Group would not be fighting in Ukraine anymore as Prigozhin refused to sign any contracts with Kremlin.
