The former commander of the invasion of Ukraine was officially fired on Wednesday, August 23, after serving as a privileged interlocutor within the Russian Defense Ministry to rebel mercenary leader Yevkhuni Prigozhin.

His brutality earned him the nickname “General Armageddon”. Sergei Surovykin, the symbolic commander of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has finally paid for his connections with the paramilitary group Wagner and its leader. Prigogine. “Army General Sergei Churovikhin Removed From Post”, State news agency Ria Novosti said on Wednesday, August 23, citing a source familiar with domestic military movements. The influential general has already disappeared from public view since Wagner put down the rebellion in June, which experts say is a sign of his demotion.

According to the influential military blog Rybar, which has 1.2 million subscribers, Surovik’s dismissal has been effective. “after that” Wagner’s rebellion, if not “A censure is not necessary, but may be a temporary measure.”

On the night of June 23-24, when Yevgeny Prigozhin called for the overthrow of the Russian military command and his mercenaries rushed toward Moscow, Sergei Churovikhin appeared in a video, defensive in appearance, weapon tucked into his right thigh. “I am addressing the fighters and leaders of the Wagner group […] We are of the same blood, we are warriors. Please stop”, he said, his speech slow, his face unshaven, and staring hard into the camera. “before it’s too late”, He insisted on a man of Siberian descent.

Within 24 hours, Evgueni Prigojine reversed course and went into exile in Belarus. But Sergei Churovykin’s plea for rationality, published so quickly and considered by some observers to be controlling, was not enough to prevent the general’s marginalization because of his association with Wagner. That’s because the 56-year-old soldier, who has a reputation for being ruthless, has long been considered a key ally of the paramilitary group within the Russian Defense Ministry, and Wagner sought the leadership of Minister Sergei Shoigu. Chief of Staff, Valery Kurasimov.

retreat and bombardment

Last May, when Yevgeny Prigozhin insulted the Russian Ministry of Defense, accusing it of depriving its mercenaries of ammunition, he made Sergei Surovikhin his main interlocutor. Before that, when Surovikin was appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine in early October 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin was happy with the appointment.

In November 2022, on the orders of Sergey Surovikin, Russian troops had to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine and the right bank of the Dnieper. An inevitable defeat for Moscow. The general was then the mastermind of the fall and winter bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which was supposed to bring down the country, but was unsuccessful.

At the beginning of 2023, after being replaced by Valery Kurasimov, Sergei Churovikin was in the circle of commanders, enjoying a difficult image, he was a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the second Chechnya war in the 2000s and brutal. The 2015 Syrian campaign earned him the nickname “The Butcher of Syria”. The NGO Human Rights Watch accused him of being one of them in 2020 “Able to take responsibility” Attacks on residential areas, schools and hospitals.

In Russia, he is also known for his participation in the failed 1991 coup attempt in which he signed the Soviet Union’s death warrant. Imprisoned after troops under his command killed three pro-democracy demonstrators, Sergei Churovikhin was released a few months later.