Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) drinks a toast with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev next to Sergei Surovkin, commander of Russian forces in Syria, after the state awards ceremony for military personnel who fought in Syria, at the Moscow Kremlin on December 28, 2017 (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV/ POOL/AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images
Russia has appointed a new commander to command all of its forces in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war enters its eighth month.
Sergei Surovkin, an army general who also oversees the Russian Air Force, has previously commanded Russian forces in Syria. His new role would include galvanizing Russian forces after a series of setbacks, including heavy losses in troops and equipment and the confiscation of thousands of square miles of occupied territory.
Surovkin’s appointment follows the appointment of Russian President Vladimir Putin Plans to recruit hundreds of thousands of Russian men for war. Putin’s order that 300,000 Russians take part in the fighting in Ukraine is the first time since World War II that Moscow has recruited civilians into the army.
The Kremlin’s decision to impose a partial draft was partly the result of a series of startling Ukrainian developments in recent weeks.
last week, Putin announced it Four Ukrainian regions now belong to Russia. The Russian president referred to the referendums, which are widely seen as fraudulent and illegal by Western governments, and were conducted in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
“The results are known and known. There are four new regions in Russia,” Putin said on September 30, referring to Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.
In the wake of Putin’s speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would submit a “rapid” application for his country to join the military alliance NATO.
Ukrainian troops, equipped with an arsenal of Western weapons, recaptured vast areas of territory occupied by Russian troops from the first days of the war. Their successes on the battlefield affected the reputation of the mighty war machine in the Kremlin.
But as Ukraine struggles to regain control one village at a time, the cost to civilians has been exorbitant.
To date, the United Nations estimates that the Russian invasion has killed more than 6,000 civilians and injured more than 8,600. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights adds that the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher.
