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Andrei Medvedev: Former Wagner commander flees to Norway

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CNN
 — 

A former commander in Russia’s Wagner private military company has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border, according to Norwegian police and a Russian activist.

Andrei Medvedev, in an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, said that he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service with Wagner.

Medvedev said that after completing his contract, and refusing to serve another, he was afraid of being executed in the same manner of Yevgeny Nuzhin – a defector from Wagner who was killed on camera with a sledgehammer.

“We were just thrown to fight like cannon fodder,” he told Vladimir Osechkin, head of Gulagu.net, a human rights advocacy group, in a conversation published on YouTube.

A spokesperson for Norway’s Police Security Service confirmed to CNN Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and seeking asylum.

“This is so far a local police investigation,” Eirik Veum told CNN. “But the Security Service, we are informed, and follow the investigation of course.”

The mercenary group, headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, has emerged as a key player in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – recently doing much of the fighting in the small eastern town of Soledar.

The group is often described as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s off-the-books troops. It has expanded its footprint globally since its creation in 2014, and has been accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria and Ukraine.

Medvedev said that he crossed the border near the Russian town of Nikel, in a phone call from Norway with Osechkin, which was published online.

The account aligns with that of the Finnmark Police District, who without naming Medvedev, said that it made an “undramatic” arrest of a man in Pasvik on the Norwegian side of the border at 1.58 a.m. on Friday, January 13.

In his own account, Medvedev said that he crossed the border and approached the first house he could find.

“I told a local woman in broken English about my situation and asked for help,” he told Osechkin in the phone call. “While I was on the road, I was approached by the border force and police. I was taken to a department, where I was questioned and charged with illegal crossing. I explained to them everything and told them why I did it.”

“It was a miracle I managed to get here,” he said.

Medvedev had previously tried to cross into Finland twice and failed, Osechkin told CNN Monday.

The head of Wagner, Prigozhin, confirmed on Telegram Monday that Medvedev had served in his company, and said that he “should have been prosecuted for attempting to mistreat prisoners.”

In a December conversation with Osechkin, which was published on YouTube, Medvedev denied that he had committed any crimes in Ukraine.

“I signed a contract with the group on the 6th of July 2022. I had been appointed commander of the first squad of the 4th platoon of the 7th assault detachment,” he recalled. “When the prisoners started arriving, the situation in Wagner really changed. They stopped treating us like humans. We were just thrown to fight like cannon fodder.”

“Every week they sent more prisoners to us. We lost a lot of men. Casualties were high. We would lose 15 to 20 men just in our platoon. As far as I know, a majority of them were buried in LPR [Luhansk People’s Republic] and declared missing. If you are declared missing, there is no insurance pay-out to the relatives.”

He claimed that prisoners were “shot dead for refusing to fight, or betrayal.”

“I am afraid for my life,” he said in December. “I did not commit any crime. I have refused to participate in maneuvers of Yevgeny Prigozhin.”

Osechkin told CNN Monday that he began helping Medvedev after being approached by a friend at the end of November.

Prigozhin, he explained, had ordered all contracts to be automatically renewed starting in November. When Medvedev refused to renew, he was beaten, Osechkin claimed.

“Andrei decided to leave Wagner,” Osechkin told CNN. “Once this happened, he became wanted by security services of Wagner and Russian special services. There was a threat to his life.”

“He was afraid he will be executed in the same manner as Yevgeny Nuzhin – with a sledgehammer. We, as human-rights defenders, decided to help him and protect his life.”

Osechkin said that he helped Medvedev with groceries, clothes, and a telephone.

“We are not trying to justify his actions in relation to his participation in Wagner Group. But it should be understood that he decided to flee Wagner Group as terrorist organization which kills both Russians and Ukrainians.”

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Russia’s new commander reflects Putin’s plan to push for victory in Ukraine

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With the appointment of Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s highest-ranking military officer, as direct operational commander of the troubled war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his conviction that the invasion’s objectives can be achieved without new leadership — and is now turning to a trusted confidant who will carry out his orders without question, analysts said.

“Gerasimov’s appointment is likely intended to support an intended decisive Russian military effort in 2023,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in an analysis Wednesday.

“Putin has repeatedly demonstrated he misunderstands the capabilities of Russian forces and has not abandoned his maximalist war aims in Ukraine,” the analysis said. “Putin may have appointed Gerasimov, the highest-ranking officer in the Russian military, to succeed a series of theater commanders to oversee a major offensive that Putin — likely incorrectly — believes Russian forces can accomplish in 2023.”

Other analysts said Gerasimov was potentially being set up to take the fall for further Russian failures on the battlefield. And still others speculated that Gerasimov, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, were moving to reassert control for traditional military leaders over irregular forces led by Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin and strongman Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Gerasimov, 67, an army general and deputy defense minister, has been chief of the General Staff for more than a decade and is a Kremlin insider who had a key role in planning the war from the start. As head of the joint forces in Ukraine, he replaces Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who in just three months leading the war effort was credited with stabilizing Russia’s positions after Ukraine recaptured large swaths of territory.

Some experts said personal rivalries were in the mix. “Shoigu and Gerasimov demoted Surovikin, and put Gerasimov in charge of the operation in Ukraine, demoting their most competent senior commander and replacing him with an incompetent one,” tweeted Dara Massicot, an analyst of Russian defense issues at the Rand Corp. “This is a story that has it all: infighting, power struggles, jealousy.”

Moscow’s latest abrupt reshuffling of its top commanders, announced Wednesday by the Defense Ministry but undoubtedly approved by Putin himself, left seasoned Kremlin watchers with their heads spinning. In Russia, many war hawks were irate that Gerasimov, whom they blame for the abysmal planning that led to repeated battlefield defeats, is now directly in charge as the war drags through its 11th month.

Poland urges allies to join it in sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine

A career officer with nearly 50 years of service, Gerasimov is a conservative and experienced field commander who joined the Soviet army in 1977 and ascended the ranks through the tank corps. Surovikin, who earned the nickname “General Armageddon” because of his use of brutal tactics as a commander in Syria, essentially has now been demoted to Gerasimov’s deputy.

Prigozhin and Kadyrov were supporters of Surovikin but had savagely criticized other Russian military commanders, including Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin, who was promoted in Wednesday’s shake-up, according to Russian media. Lapin had been removed from a senior post in a previous reshuffling as the war faltered.

Mark Galeotti, an analyst and expert on Russian security affairs, said Surovikin’s demotion revealed Putin’s tendency to associate people with problems. “He thinks that all it takes is a new person,” Galeotti said in an interview. “He thinks that this was Surovikin’s gambit, and now he has to suffer for it.”

Galeotti said Gerasimov’s appointment brings “additional political clout” to the day-to-day operational decisions but also signals an attempt to fix the Russian military’s growing factionalism. The Defense Ministry’s statement on Wednesday suggested that the reorganization was linked to an “expansion” of the operation and intended to “improve the quality … and effectiveness of the management of Russian forces.”

“There must be a hope that he can actually make sure that coordination with the Rosgvardia” — Russia’s national guard — “with Kadyrov’s forces and, above all, with Wagner will work better because that’s been a disastrous failure,” Galeotti said.

The leadership changes, whatever their true purpose, highlight that Putin never expected to be in such a disastrous situation. He is now nearly a year into an invasion that some Russian commentators predicted would end successfully within days, with victorious Russian troops parading through Kyiv.

Instead, there have been tens of thousands killed and wounded, and Putin was forced to announce an unpopular mobilization to conscript reinforcements. Four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed, in violation of international law, are not fully under Moscow’s control. And Ukraine’s Western supporters are planning to send Kyiv shipments of additional and more powerful weapons.

Many pro-Russian military bloggers expressed skepticism that the reshuffling would solve the Russian army’s mounting problems, including its reliance on hastily trained, ill-equipped recruits. “The sum doesn’t change by changing the places of its parts,” a pro-war analyst who goes by the handle Rybar wrote on Telegram.

Others say Gerasimov is being set up — burdened with direct responsibility as Russia heads toward further defeats — as a potential scapegoat for Putin when the moment is right.

Although Surovikin largely avoided public criticism, he was in charge when Russia suffered several humiliating battlefield defeats, including its retreat from Kherson city, which Surovikin had predicted might be necessary when he was promoted to oversee the war.

Russia claims to take Soledar, a battlefield gain, but swaps war commanders

Recently, Russia has suffered high casualties in a string of precision strikes by Ukraine, including a devastating recent attack in Makiivka that left at least 89 Russian troops dead. Some commentators blamed Russian commanders’ ineptitude for housing soldiers and storing ammunition in the same building.

Gerasimov was appointed by Putin to head Russia’s General Staff in 2012 and has been closely associated with Russia’s use of hybrid warfare, including in its 2014 invasion and illegal annexation of Crimea.

The reshuffling has highlighted growing fault lines within the command, with analysts saying Surovikin’s demotion was a pointed snub to Kadyrov and Prigozhin, whose Wagner forces have led a months-long push to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin on Wednesday claimed to have moved a key step closer by seizing the neighboring city of Soledar. But Ukrainian officials disputed the claim, and fierce fighting continued in and around Soledar on Thursday. Western officials have said that there is little strategic value to the fight but that Prigozhin wants a public-relations win.

“This maneuvering is a tug-of-war between Surovikin (and his sympathizers like Prigozhin) and Gerasimov,” Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya wrote on Telegram. “Putin, as a nonprofessional military man and not understanding how to save the whole thing, is wavering between them. In a couple of months Gerasimov might be removed too.”

Molly McKew, a Washington-based expert on information warfare, said the new appointments were meant to restore the balance of power.

“Putin loves to cut the legs out from under whoever is tallest at the moment, and I think this is a part of that,” McKew said in an interview. “It is a signal that these internal power struggles that everybody has been microanalyzing and that we focus on so much are under control.”

Whatever the internal machinations, one thing remains clear: The war is not going to plan. McKew said the reshuffling reflected preparation for new offensives. “I think it signals an escalation, of commitment to advancing and sustaining the war, which no one’s really been that certain of from the Russian side, because they were planning on winning so quickly,” McKew said.

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Russia’s new Ukraine commander signals civilian removals from ‘tense’ Kherson | Ukraine

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The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”.

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.

Surovikin’s statements on Tuesday came amid repeated military setbacks for Russian forces prompting Moscow’s dependence on Iran, which is sending missiles and drones.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that military advisers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were on Ukrainian soil, at a Russian military base in occupied Crimea. The Iranians were reported to have been deployed to help Russian troops deal with problems with the Tehran-supplied fleet of Shahed-136 drones, rebranded as Geran-2 by the attackers.

Russian forces have been trying to hold off a fierce Ukrainian counter-assault in Kherson, a region in the south of Ukraine that Moscow claimed to have annexed last month after staging a sham referendum.

Surovikin admitted that the situation in Kherson was “not easy”.

“Further actions and plans regarding the city of Kherson will depend on the developing military-tactical situation, which is not easy. We will act consciously, in a timely manner, without ruling out difficult decisions,” he added.

The comments appeared to mark a rare acknowledgment of the difficulties facing Russian forces. But it was not immediately clear whether Surovikin, the ruthless general now in charge of the war, was hinting at a looming Russian withdrawal from Kherson or a fresh round of airstrikes.

Kherson, which lies near the mouth of the Dnipro on the west bank, was one of the first cities to fall to Russia after the invasion on 24 February and is a crucial strategic and symbolic target for Ukraine’s government.

Gruelling fighting has been reported in the region since the start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive at the end of the summer, with both sides suffering steep casualties.

The Ukrainian army has sought to pinch off Russian supply lines to Kherson by destroying the two main road bridges across the Dnipro. Kyiv has recently introduced a news blackout in the south of the country, leading to speculations that it was preparing a new major offensive on Kherson.

“When the Ukrainians have a news blackout it means something is going on. They have always done this before when there is a big offensive push on,” Michael Clarke, a former director general of the Royal United Services Institute, told Sky News.

“I am guessing in the next 48-72 hours they might tell us what is happening,” he added.

Shortly after Surovikin’s statements, the Russian-installed head of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said in a video address that people in four towns in the Kherson region were being moved, in anticipation of a “large-scale offensive”.

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy administrator of the Kherson region, echoed the message on Telegram late on Tuesday. “The battle for Kherson will begin in the very near future. The civilian population is advised, if possible, to leave the area of the upcoming fierce hostilities,” he said.

Since Surovikin’s appointment on 8 October, Moscow has unleashed a barrage of cruise missiles and “kamikaze” drones targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure as well as the civilian population.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Moscow’s use of Iranian-made drones was a symbol of the Kremlin’s “military and political bankruptcy”.

“The very fact of Russia’s appeal to Iran for such assistance is the Kremlin’s recognition of its military and political bankruptcy,” Zelenskiy said in his daily address on Tuesday.

“For decades, they spent billions of dollars on their own military industrial complex. And in the end, they bowed down to Tehran in order to secure quite simple drones and missiles.”

But, Zelenskiy added, “strategically, it will not help them anyway. It only further proves to the world that Russia is on the path of defeat and is trying to draw someone else into its accomplices in terror.”

The bombing is often inaccurate and civilians have been killed in residential buildings in Kyiv and other big cities. But enough have got through to cause problems for a power grid already short of generation after the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was shut down.

Nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian attacks since Monday last week – prompting Nato’s secretary general to announce that new counter-drone defences would be delivered within days.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office, said energy infrastructure and power supply were targeted overnight in an eastern district of Kyiv, where two people were killed, and in the cities of Dnipro and Zhytomyr.

“The situation is critical now across the country because our regions are dependent on one another … it’s necessary for the whole country to prepare for electricity, water and heating outages,” Tymoshenko told Ukrainian television.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said member countries would “step up” and deliver more air defences to help stabilise the situation. “Nato will in the coming days deliver counter-drone systems to counter the specific threat of drones, including those from Iran,” he said.

Although there are signs that Moscow is running short on guided missiles, it has acquired up to 2,400 Iranian drones, according to Ukraine, and is using them as cheaper substitutes to hit the energy targets and strike fear into civilians.

Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he did not have any information about their origin. “Russian equipment with Russian names is being used,” Peskov said.

Ukraine, experts and western governments believe the Gerans are rebranded Shahed drones, identifiable by their distinctive delta wing shape and from an examination of fragments recovered from the ground.

A western official, speaking on condition of anonymity in a briefing on Tuesday, said they believed Russia was “pursuing a deliberate strategy of attempting to destroy Ukraine’s electricity network”.

Reuters reported that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones, citing two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats.

The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, flew to Washington on Tuesday to discuss how to respond to Iran’s intervention, as officials briefed that a new air defence package for Ukraine was being prepared.

Last week Germany delivered the first of four Iris-T air defence systems it had promised to supply Ukraine, but the US has been wary of strengthening Ukraine’s air force and defences for fear it would be seen as an escalation.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the US House of Representatives, warned on Tuesday that Congress would not “write a blank cheque to Ukraine” if his party wins next month’s midterm elections.

Hours later, however, another senior Republican, Michael McCaul, said that he thought that the Ukrainians should “get what they need” – including longer-range missiles than those the Biden administration has so far been prepared to supply.

Analysts say the mixed messages reflect an internal debate between traditional national security conservatives and the Trumpist wing of the party, where pro-Russian sentiment is much stronger.

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Sergey Surovikin, Russia’s new top commander in Ukraine, has a reputation for brutality

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CNN
 — 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating war on Ukraine is faltering. Now, there’s a new general in charge – with a reputation for brutality.

After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than Russia’s army took in the last six months, Russia’s Ministry of Defense last Saturday named Sergey Surovikin as its new overall commander for operations in the war.

Notably, he previously played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria – during which Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held areas – as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

CNN spoke to a former Russian air force lieutenant, Gleb Irisov, who served under him in Syria.

He said Surovikin was “very close to Putin’s regime” and “never had any political ambitions, so always executed a plan exactly as ​the government wanted.”

Analysts say Surovikin’s appointment is highly unlikely to change how Russian forces are carrying out the war but that it speaks to Putin’s dissatisfaction with previous command operations. It is also, in part, likely meant to “mollify” the nationalist and pro-war base within Russia itself, according to Mason Clark, Russia Lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has called for Russia to “take more drastic measures​” ​including the use of “low-yield nuclear weapons” in Ukraine following recent setbacks, welcomed the appointment of Surovikin, who first saw service in Afghanistan in the 1980s before commanding a unit in the Second Chechen War ​in 2004. Praise from Kadyrov, who is ​a key Putin ally, is significant, perhaps, as he himself is notorious for crushing all forms of dissent.

“I personally ​have know​n Sergei very well for almost 15 years. I can definitely say he is a real general and warrior, experienced, headstrong and foresighted commander who always takes patriotism, honor and respect above all,” Kadyrov posted on social media, following news of Surovikin’s appointment last Saturday. “The united army group is now in safe hands,” he added.

Irisov, Surovikin’s former subordinate, left his five-year career in the armed forces after his time in Syria because his own political views conflicted with what he experienced. “Of course, you understand, who is right and who is wrong,” Irisov said. “I witnessed a lot of stuff, being inside the system.”

Irisov then began what he hoped would be the start of a career as an international journalist, as a military reporter with Russian state news agency TASS. His wife worked there and he felt at the time it was “the only main information agency” that tried to ​cover news in an “unbiased” way, with “some opportunity of freedom of speech,” he said.

“Everything changed” on February 24, 2022, when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began and TASS received orders from the FSB security service and defense ministry “that everyone will be prosecuted if they don’t execute the propaganda scheme,” Irisov said.

He had family in Kyiv, hiding in bomb shelters, and told CNN he knew “nothing could justify this war.” He also knew from his military contacts that there were already many casualties in the first days of the war.

“For me it was obvious from the beginning,” Irisov recalled. “I tried to explain to people this war will lead to the collapse of Russia… it will be a great tragedy not only for Ukrainians but also for Russia.”

Irisov fled Moscow with his pregnant wife and young child on March 8, 2022, after standing against the invasion. He had quit his job at TASS and signed petitions and an open letter against the war, he told CNN. After traveling to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and finally Mexico, where they contacted the US embassy to ask for help, they are now working to start a new life in West Virginia.

While serving at Latakia air base in Syria in 2019 and 2020, the 31-year-old says he worked on aviation safety and air traffic control, coordinating flights with Damascus’ civilian airlines. He ​says he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke to high-ranking officers under him.

“He made a lot of people very angry – they hated him,” Irisov said, describing how the “direct” and “straight” general was disliked at headquarters because of the way he tried to implement his infantry experience into the air force.

Irisov says he understands Surovikin had strong connections with Kremlin-approved private military company the Wagner group​, which has operated in Syria.

The Kremlin denies any connections to Wagner and insists that private military companies are illegal in Russia.

Surovikin, whose military career began in 1983, has a checkered history, to say the least.

In 2004, according to Russian media accounts and at least two think tanks, he berated a subordinate so severely that the subordinate took his own life.

And a book by the think tank the Washington DC-based Jamestown Foundation says that during the unsuccessful coup attempt against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, soldiers under Surovikin’s command killed three protesters, leading to Surovikin spending at least six months in prison.

CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on Surovikin’s appointment and regarding allegations about his harsh leadership.

In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named him as “someone who may bear ​command responsibility” for the dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war​” during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive in Syria. ​The attacks killed at least 1,600 ​civilians and forced the displacement of an estimated 1.4 million people, according to HRW​​, which cites UN figures.

During his time in Syria, the ​now-56-year-old was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

In February this year, Surovikin was sanctioned by the European Union in his capacity as head of the Aerospace Forces “for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security in Ukraine.”

Irisov believes there are three reasons why he has been put in charge in Ukraine now: his closeness to the government and Putin; his interbranch experience with both the infantry and air force; and his experience since the summer commanding Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea. These are areas that Putin is trying to control “at any cost,” said Irisov.

Just two days after Surovikin’s appointment on Saturday, Russia launched its heaviest bombardment of Ukraine since the early days of the war.

Surovikin is “more familiar with cruise missiles, maybe he used his connections and experience to organize this chain of devastating attacks,” Irisov said​, referencing the reports that cruise missiles have been among the weapons deployed by Russia in this latest surge of attacks.

But Clark, from the ISW, suggests the general’s promotion is “more of a framing thing to inject new blood into the Russian command system” and “put on this tough nationalist face.”

His appointment “got widespread praise from various Russian military bloggers as well as Yevgeny (Prigozhin), who’s the financier of the Wagner Group,” Clark said.

He believes what’s happening now is a reflection of what happened in April, when another commander, Alexander Dvornikov, was appointed overall commander of the operations in Ukraine.

“Similarly, he before then was a commander of one of the groupings of Russian forces and had sort of a master reputation in Syria much like Surovikin for brutality, earning this sort of name of the ‘butcher of Aleppo,’” Clark said.

Dvornikov was also seen at the time as the commander “that was going to turn things around in Ukraine and get the job done,” he added. “But an individual commander is not going to be able to change how tangled Russian command and control is at this point in the war, or the low morale of Russian forces.”

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, also told CNN this week that Surovikin’s appointment “reflects the ascendancy of a lot of hardline voices inside Russia… calling on Putin to make changes, and to bring in someone who would be willing to execute these ruthless attacks.”

Clark reasons that “from what we’ve seen, it’s highly ​probable that Putin is involved in decision-making down to a very tactical level and in some cases bypassing the senior Russian military officers to interact directly on the battlefield.”

Surovikin personally signed Irisov’s resignation papers from the air force, he says. Now, Irisov sees him put in charge of operations in Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine – but what impact the general will or can have is not yet clear.

According to Clark, “there isn’t a good Kremlin option if Surovikin doesn’t perform or if Putin decides that he is also not up to the task. There aren’t many other senior Russian officers and it’s just going to lead to a further degradation of the Russian war effort.”

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Russia appoints new overall commander for its military in Ukraine

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) toasts with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev next to Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian troops in Syria, after a ceremony to bestow state awards on military personnel who fought in Syria, at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 28, 2017. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Russia has appointed a new commander to lead all of its forces in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war marches into its eighth month.

Sergei Surovikin, an Army general who also oversees Russia’s air force, previously led Russian forces in Syria. His new role will involve galvanizing Russian troops after a slew of setbacks, including heavy losses of troops and equipment, and the forfeiture of thousands of square miles of occupied territory.

Surovikin’s appointment comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to conscript hundreds of thousands of Russian men for the war. Putin’s order for approximately 300,000 Russians to join the fight in Ukraine is the first time since World War II that Moscow has drafted civilians into the military.

The Kremlin’s decision to impose a partial draft was triggered in part by a series of stunning Ukrainian advances in recent weeks.

Last week, Putin declared that four Ukrainian regions now belonged to Russia. The Russian leader cited referendums, widely viewed as rigged and illegal by Western governments, held in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.

“The results are known, well known,” Putin said on Sept. 30. “There are four new regions of Russia,” referring to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

On the heels of Putin’s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will submit an “accelerated” application for his country to join the NATO military alliance.

Equipped with an arsenal of Western weapons, Ukrainian forces have retaken vast swaths of territory that had been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war. Their battlefield successes have dented the reputation of the Kremlin’s mighty war machine.

But as Ukraine fights to retake land one village at a time, the cost to civilians has been enormous.

So far, the U.N. estimates that Russia’s invasion has claimed more than 6,000 civilian lives and led to more than 8,600 injuries. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights adds that the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher.

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Former NATO Commander Says Not Losing Much Sleep Over Putin’s Nuclear Threats

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  • A former NATO commander said he’s not losing “a lot of sleep” over Putin’s nuclear threats.
  • James Stavridis said using such action would “create a huge movement away from” Putin around the world.
  • Putin threatened nuclear force as he announced a partial military mobilization this week. 

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, told MSNBC on Friday that he’s not particularly concerned about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats. 

“I don’t see Putin deciding to use a nuclear weapon,” Stavridis said. “Bottom line: Putin is upping the ante,” he added, “but I think the storm clouds are rising for Vladimir Putin.”

As Putin announced plans for partial military mobilization earlier this week, taking immediate steps to begin calling up 300,000 reservists, the Russian leader threatened the use of nuclear force in the event of a “threat” to Russia’s “territorial integrity.” 

“We will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff,” Putin said.

His recent remarks were not the first time since he launched his war in Ukraine that Putin has issued a warning pertaining to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which is the largest in the world. The US has repeatedly accused Putin of nuclear saber rattling. 

“President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime,” President Joe Biden said of his Russian counterpart during a speech at the UN General Assembly this week..

“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” Biden said, decrying Russia for “making irresponsible nuclear threats.”

Western officials and Russia watchers have repeatedly warned that Putin could decide to use a nuclear weapon if he feels backed into a corner in Ukraine, with some worrying that the likelihood of such a scenario has increased given Ukraine’s recent capture of a significant chunk of territory previously held by the Russian army as part of a counteroffensive. The US has for months privately warned Russia there would be serious consequences if it employs a nuclear weapon, according to a Washington Post report. 

But Stavridis said he’s not losing “a lot of sleep” over Putin’s nuclear rhetoric.

The former NATO commander said the use of a nuclear weapon by the Russian leader would “create a huge movement away from him — dramatically — in world opinion.” 

In an op-ed for Bloomberg published this week, Stavridis said the “nuclear threat is a repetition of Putin’s bluster from months ago.”

“He is highly unlikely to use even a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon given the obvious threat of starting World War III and also the immense damage it would do in his efforts to keep Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa and other large nonaligned countries in neutrality,” Stavridis wrote.

Stavridis also said that Putin’s military mobilization and nuclear threats were moves that “smack of desperation,” a point many other expert observers have also argued.

Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO, expressed similar views in comments to Insider on Wednesday.

Putin is “acknowledging that the ‘special military operation’ isn’t going well,” Daalder said, adding that “any mobilization — partial or whole— seven months into a war means you’re losing, not winning.”

And in reference to Putin’s nuclear threat, Daalder asserted that “anyone who finds it necessary to say that he’s not bluffing most likely is.” 

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World

Top Russian Commander of Invading Army Captured by Ukraine—Report

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Ukrainian media outlets and social media users have speculated that a top Russian commander has been captured as Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces gathers pace.

Images and video shared on Twitter and Telegram purportedly show Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi among a group of Russian troops handcuffed on their knees with one social media user saying they were near Balakliya, in the Kharkiv region

Many noted the similarity of one of the captured men to other images of Sychevoi.

Nexta TV tweeted a screen grab of the alleged general next to a previous image of Sychevoi in his regalia.

“It seems that the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured not the usual ‘lieutenant colonel’, but the commander of the ‘West’ grouping, Colonel General Andrey Sychevoi,” it said.

A screen grab of shared on social media Telegram channels show Russian Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi (left) and an image purportedly of him having been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Via Telegram

The Lviv Journal tweeted a clip it said was of the Russian troops following their capture, with the message, “Time will tell if it’s Gen. Andrei Sychevoi that appears in the video.

“What I find intriguing is that 6 Ukrainian soldiers surround him & look at him as if he is the big fish, & the way he looks away from the camera [he surrendered after all]”, it added.

Military analyst Rob Lee tweeted “Russian Telegram channels are already [pointing] the finger at Lieutenant General Sychevoi who is the ‘West’ group commander responsible for this area.”

On the uniform of the man believed to be Sychevoi are the two stars worn by Russian lieutenant generals. Two stars are also on display on the shoulders of his ceremonial uniform he is wearing in images shared of him on social media.

“Striking similarity, isn’t it?” wrote Twitter user Nordic Arctic Fox Operative who also tweeted a combined image of the Russian captured with Sychevoi in his garb.

The capture has not been confirmed and Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian armed forces and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

If verified, it would be a considerable coup for Ukraine although other social media users have disputed if it really is Sychevoi.

Open source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander was among several who noted a difference in the hairline and a facial mole between the commander and the POW.

There also appears to be doubt over Sychevoi’s current role. When he was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28, he was commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.

But in June, the Conflict Intelligence Team [CIT] said that according to its sources, Sychevoi, who was an ex-commander of the 8th Army, had taken over the post in the Western Military District.

Analyst Lee said in a follow up tweet that he appeared to have been replaced “a month ago”, citing a Russian Telegram channel.

Rights group Charter 97 has dubbed Sychevoi, 53, who it said had held his current rank since 2019, “a war criminal of the highest rank” who “gives orders in the war against Ukraine.”

Update 9/9/22 6:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to remove some superfluous words.

Update 9/9/22 5:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add additional comment and context.



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Science

Meet Commander Moonikin Campos, the Artemis I mannequin

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Turn to CNN for live coverage from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, starting on Saturday morning and running through the Monday morning launch. Space correspondents Kristin Fisher and Rachel Crane will bring us moment-by-moment reporting from the launch, along with a team of experts.

Rather than astronauts, a mannequin named Commander Moonikin Campos will helm the Orion spacecraft, with two mannequin torsos called Helga and Zohar along for the ride.

The Artemis program aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon and eventually deliver astronauts to Mars.

The inaugural mission will test out the new Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and multiple components designed to make deep space travel safer for humans.

Mannequins in a spacecraft with enviable views of the moon may sound like some sort of joke, but these three passengers will serve as canaries in the coal mine of space.

Orion will travel 40,000 miles (64,373 kilometers) beyond the moon, breaking the record set by Apollo 13, to go farther than any spacecraft intended to carry humans.

This is far from low-Earth orbit, where the International Space Station circles the Earth. Orion’s future crews will be exposed to deep space radiation — especially once they venture for longer stays on the moon and set off for Mars.

Moonikin’s mission

Commander Moonikin Campos’ name, picked via a public contest, is a nod to Arturo Campos, a NASA electrical power subsystem manager who aided in the troubled Apollo 13’s safe return to Earth. The mannequin, sporting the Orion Crew Survival System suit, can collect data on what future human crews might experience.

The suit has been designed for Artemis astronauts to wear during launch and reentry, and it is outfitted with two radiation sensors.

It can sustain a crew member for up to six days in the event of an in-space emergency, something that has never been attempted before, said Dustin Gohmert, Orion Crew Survival Systems project manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“You can almost think of it as a personalized spacecraft — a secondary but much more personalized spacecraft that protects the crew member, provides them pressure, oxygen, cooling and any other life-sustaining functions that are needed,” Gohmert said.

With new safety features, Commander Moonikin Campos’ seat resembles that of a race car’s, with a cocoon forming around its occupant, he said. The seat has shock absorbers in case of landing in rough seas or other scenarios.

Phantom twins

Twin mannequins Helga and Zohar have a separate mission. The two torsos are based on phantoms, used for radiation treatment planning in hospitals, said Thomas Berger, Helga and Zohar principal investigator at the German Aerospace Center.

Both phantoms are made of materials that mimic the soft tissue, organs and bones of a woman. Their epoxy resin forms even resemble human lung and brain tissue to test how radiation passes through the human body.

The torsos have more than 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure how much radiation exposure occurs within different organs during the mission.

The mannequins are part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment, or MARE, a collaboration between the German Aerospace Center, the Israel Space Agency, NASA and institutions across multiple countries.

Zohar will wear AstroRad, a radiation protection vest, to test how effective it could be if future crews encounter a solar storm, while Helga will be unprotected.

Solar storms unleashed by the sun can last for days or weeks. The developers of AstroRad hope that the vest would allow future Artemis crews to continue performing daily activities despite space weather. The vest is made of thousands of shielding cores that can protect vital human organs against solar energy particles.

Combating space radiation

Different organs have different susceptibilities to space radiation, said Ramona Gaza, the MARE science team lead at Johnson Space Center.

The MARE project aims to measure the differences between how specific organs, such as the brain, respond to radiation.

Previously, different limits of radiation exposure have been set for astronauts on the space station.

A June 2021 report by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine suggested a new standard limit for all astronauts regardless of age or gender: 600 millisieverts of radiation over the course of a career, Gaza said.

“Millisieverts measure the health effect of low doses of ionizing radiation on the human body,” according to the report.

Not all scientists have accepted previous studies showing discrepancies in the different responses between men and women to radiation, Gaza said.

Data returned by the Artemis I mission could have an impact on the standard limit for male and female astronauts.

“The United States of America is half men, half women. Well, space should be at least that,” said Reid Wiseman, chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center. “So if we cannot make these spacecraft equitable, and we can’t fly any type of person on them, then we need to look at our systems and reevaluate.”

Meanwhile, NASA’s astronauts are doing everything they can to prepare for the Artemis missions by training in virtual reality situations and in environments that simulate lunar conditions, he said.

The agency hopes to announce the Artemis II crew, slated to take astronauts on a similar journey around the moon, later this year, according to Wiseman. Artemis II is expected to launch in 2024.

“To me, it’s just the most awe-inspiring moment that we’ve had here at NASA,” Wiseman said.

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World

Israel strikes and kills another top Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza

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The Israel Defense Forces struck and killed a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, military officials said.

Khaled Mansour was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Palestinian city of Rafah, according to officials. The terror group confirmed his death in a statement on Sunday morning.

He was the southern Gaza counterpart of Tayseer Jabari, the terror group’s commander in northern Gaza, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday.

The killing of Jabari was the opening strike of the IDF’s Operation Breaking Dawn. Since then, the PIJ has launched over 580 rockets at Israel, according to IDF estimates.

The IDF on Sunday morning published a video of the airstrike which it said killed Mansour, along with the commander of the terror group’s Rafah Brigade, Khattab Amassi, and Mansour’s deputy, Ziad Madalal.

The head of the military’s Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, said that according to “all available information,” Israel had now killed the entire PIJ top brass.

Last week, the IDF arrested the terror group’s leader in the West Bank.

“This organization tried to carry out a deadly attack against Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers by launching an anti-tank guided missile, aimed at killing civilians and soldiers,” Basiuk said in a press conference outside the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.

“We hit and foiled the chain of command [who sought to] execute this attack,” he said, referring to the assassinations of Jabari and Mansour.

Basiuk said that “according to all the information we have, [Mansour] was [struck] along with others.”

Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk issues a statement outside the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 6, 2022. (Screenshot: Channel 12 news)

“The entire top brass of the PIJ military wing in Gaza were [struck],” Basiuk said.

Mansour was also responsible for many rocket attacks on Israel, according to military officials.

Illustrative: Palestinian terrorists fire rockets toward Israel in Gaza City, Saturday, August 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

The Israeli air force has conducted numerous strikes in Gaza targeting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group as part of the operation launched Friday to tackle what Israeli leaders said was an immediate concrete threat by the PIJ to Israeli communities.

The operation was launched after several days of closures and lockdowns in Israeli communities near the Strip due to the alert of an imminent attack, with the PIJ seeking to avenge the arrest of its West Bank leader earlier in the week.

Israeli leaders said the operation was started because the PIJ had refused to back down from its plans to attack Israeli targets at the border.

Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that the death toll from the latest violence in the territory had risen to 24, including six children, but Israel denied conducting a new strike that reportedly killed seven of those, including children.

The IDF meanwhile has begun to call up reservists to bolster its Southern Command, Home Front Command, air defense array and combat troops in the event of further escalation. Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved calling up as many as 25,000 reservist troops, his office said.

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World

A new NATO commander for Europe takes charge

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Just one day after a historic two-day NATO summit in Madrid, the alliance swore in a new supreme allied commander and head of U.S. European Command (EUCOM).

At a change-of-command ceremony in Stuttgart, Germany, General Christopher Cavoli, the American four-star general who has been leading the U.S. Army in Europe, raised his right hand and received command of an expanding NATO that will soon have 300,000 active troops under his watch.

It will also have two new member states — Finland and Sweden — once all 30 NATO member parliaments vote to include them.

Christopher G. Cavoli, U.S. Army general, smiles as he is awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit by the Bavarian Minister-President.
(Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)

“Chris knows Europe better than any living officer in uniform today. Chris is literally purpose built to lead EUCOM,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said during the ceremony, accompanied by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 

Austin thanked outgoing commander Gen Tod Wolters, who has overseen the transformation of NATO in the months since Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24.

TURKEY LIFTS OPPOSITION TO FINLAND, SWEDEN JOINING NATO

“I believe that future generations will look back on how we all serve the cause of freedom at this pivotal moment,” Austin said during the ceremony. “They all take inspiration from the resilience and the valor of the Ukrainian people. They’ll take heart from the way that nations of goodwill rallied against Putin’s aggression.”

General Cavoli’s father served in the Army 32 years, retiring as a colonel. Christopher was born in Italy at a U.S. military base while his father served. He attended Princeton University and joined the Army as an infantryman with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in northern Italy.

“He grew up in Europe, and he’s lived all over the continent, and he’s fluent in French, Russian and Italian. He reads Spanish and Portuguese. And he can get by and understand Polish and Ukrainian, which enables him to communicate directly with about half the population of Europe,” General Milley said.

President Biden during a press conference on the final day of the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, June 30, 2022. 
(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Gen. Cavoli served in Bosnia and in combat with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. He commanded a brigade combat team in the first Armored Division. He commanded the seventh Army Training Group in Europe, was a deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and later the 25th Infantry Division. 

He was director of the Russia Desk on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, in addition to earning a master’s at Yale University in Russian studies. 

“He’s tough. He’s combat seasoned. He’s smart and has a deep understanding of Europe and Russia,” Milley said. “Chris Cavoli is the right officer in the right job at the right time. … We are at that pivotal moment, a transition period in history. And EUCOM makes it matter. You are upholding the rules based international order … You are protecting America’s vital interests. And, importantly, you are preventing Great Power war.”

Gen. Cavoli will oversee some of the biggest military posture changes in Europe since World War II. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the Pentagon has deployed or extended deployments for over 20,000 U.S. troops in Europe.

The U.S. now has more than 100,000 troops based in Europe. And soon the 40,000-member NATO Ready Force will be increased to 300,000 NATO troops.

US DEFENDS SENDING AIRCRAFT THROUGH TAIWAN STRAIT AS CHINA GROWS INCREASINGLY AGGRESSIVE

“Dwight Eisenhower said that he and the alliance leaders had shared ‘the same passionate hope of serving free humanity and of making it secure.’ We still share that hope. We still keep that flame burning,” Austin said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a press conference on the final day of the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, June 30, 2022. 
(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

At the NATO summit in Madrid, President Biden announced that the U.S. will establish an Army headquarters in Poland that will rotate to protect NATO’s Eastern flank. A rotational combat brigade will be sent to Romania, two F-35 squadrons to the UK, two Naval destroyers to Spain and a short-range air defense battery to Italy.

Another 625 military personnel will head to Germany to operate air defense missile systems.

“Putin is looking for the Finlandization of Europe,” Biden said during the NATO summit. “He’s going to get the NATOization of Europe, and that’s exactly what he didn’t want, but it is exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security in Europe.

President Biden announced Friday another $820 million in security assistance for additional weaponry for Ukraine, including air defense weapons requested by Ukraine’s government.

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This is the 14th draw-down package announced since August 2021 and includes ammunition for HIMARS, two national advanced surface-to-air-missile systems (NASAMS), 155mm ammunition and four counter artillery radars. 

Ukraine has four HIMARS, or M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which are light multiple rocket launchers developed in the late 1990s for the United States Army. They are in use right now and will have another four by the end of July, according to senior defense officials.

Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) and is based out of the Washington D.C. bureau. She joined the network in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent.

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