General Sergei Surovikin, who has not been seen publicly since the June mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries, has reappeared in a new photograph online, adding further mystery to the fate of the Russian commander.
Unnamed U.S. officials, meanwhile, said Surovikin had been freed from custody days after the crash of the plane belonging to Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and that he still retains his rank, according to The New York Times.
Dubbed “General Armageddon,” Surovkin was commander of Russia’s Aerospace Forces when he was tapped in October to take overall command of Russia’s flagging Ukraine invasion. He was removed about three months later.
On June 23, in the early hours of the mutiny launched by Prigozhin, Surovikin was seen in a video where he appealed to Wagner mercenaries to call off their rebellion.
An ally of Prigozhin, with ties dating back to his command of Russian forces in Syria, Surovikin was frequently championed by Prigozhin, who faulted Russian commanders for not being more ruthless and indiscriminate in the war.
Since that video, however, Surovikin had not been seen publicly, with rumors mounting that the Kremlin had arrested him, amid a purge of military officers and security officials seen to have backed Prigozhin’s mutiny. President Vladimir Putin had called the mutineers “traitors” and the rebellion a “stab in the back.”
On August 22, several Russian news reports said Surovikin had been relieved of command of the Aerospace Forces.
A day later, on August 23, a business jet linked to Prigozhin crashed en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Russian authorities later said DNA evidence showed Prigozhin was among the 10 killed in the crash. His body was buried in a St. Petersburg cemetery days later.
The photograph that showed Surovikin was published September 4 by Ksenia Sobchak, a journalist and former socialite whose father was President Vladimir Putin’s boss in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. The image showed the general in civilian clothes, along with a woman identified as his wife.
“General Sergei Surovikin is out. Alive, healthy, at home, with his family, in Moscow. Photo taken today,” she said in the September 4 post on Telegram
It wasn’t immediately possible to verify the photo or when or where it was taken.
In a post to Telegram several hours later, Aleksei Venediktov, a prominent and well-connected Russian journalist, said Surovikin was at home with his family. He said Surovikin was “on leave on the instruction of the Defense Ministry.”
In its September 4 report, The New York Times cited “two U.S. officials and a person close to the Russian Defense Ministry” as saying Surovikin had been released from custody in the days after the crash of Prigozhin’s jet.
Surovikin retained his rank and was still a military officer, “but he no longer has any career prospects,” one of The New York Times sources said.
