Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly tapping the so-called “Butcher of Syria” to rejuvenate the Kremlin’s offensive amid a string of military setbacks in Ukraine.
Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who was given command of Russia’s southern military district after achieving infamy for his brutal campaigns in Syria, has now been tasked with conquering Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as Putin desperately tries to eke out some kind of victory, the BBC reported.
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His opening act in his new role is believed to have been the strike on Kramatorsk railway station that killed over 52 civilians and wounded over 300, the Daily Mail reported. The missile strike drew condemnation from the international community, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decrying the attack as a “war crime.” Moscow denied that it purposely targeted civilians.
Prior to the appointment of Dvornikov, 60, Russia relied on separate command structures to guide its invasion, the official said. There was no single commander overseeing the entire invasion, with most of the big decisions coming straight from the Kremlin, the New York Times reported.
Russian airstrikes in Syria had killed roughly 5,703 civilians by 2017, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Other Russian commanders were involved in the vicious intervention in Syria that turned the war around in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Some of them served longer than Dvornikov, but his appointment likely foretells a significant escalation and heightened “terror campaign” in Ukraine, experts caution.
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Since 2016, Dvornikov has served as the commander of the Southern Military District, which oversees Russian military operations in the fraught North Caucasus near the nation of Georgia and not far from the Donbas region in Ukraine. He also outranks the “other district commanders who are Colonel-Generals,” according to Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
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The Kremlin is aiming for some form of victory by May 9, the date it celebrates the anniversary of its triumph in World War II, Western officials have predicted. Thus far, victory has eluded the belligerent Russians. In recent days, scores of Russian troops have seemingly moved out of their positions surrounding Kyiv. Unable to take the capital, Moscow has reportedly shifted its military focus to the more favorable Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk.
Pro-Russian separatists in Donbas have been battling the Ukrainian government since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, in which Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician, was ousted from power. Pentagon officials doubt the usefulness of those Russian combat units that have moved on from Kyiv, emphasizing the heavy damage they endured when trying to sack the capital.
