The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called General of the Russian Army Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed commander of the Joint Group of Forces in Ukraine on October 8, "a real general and a warrior." He posted congratulations on his appointment on his Telegram channel. It was Surovikin who, in 1991, by decision of the State Emergency Committee , led a column of armored vehicles, which crushed people during the August putsch. Then three defenders of the "White House" were killed: Vladimir Usov, Dmitry Komar and Ilya Krichevsky. According to the official version, in the tunnel under Novy Arbat, “the column was stopped by the crowd, blockages were built on the road.
Kadyrov said in a message that he had personally known "Sergey Vladimirovich for almost 15 years."
“I can definitely say about him that he is a real general and warrior, an experienced, strong-willed and far-sighted commander, for whom such concepts as patriotism, honor and dignity always stand above all else.”
The head of Chechnya added that he was pleased with the appointment, and that the United Group of Forces is now in good hands. According to him, Surovikin will improve the situation in the “special operation” zone for the better.
In 1995, Surovikin was found guilty of several crimes at once: aiding, acquiring and selling, as well as carrying firearms and ammunition without a permit. These articles of the Criminal Code provided for up to 8 years in prison, but, as Radio Liberty notes , the sentence turned out to be humane: one year of imprisonment on probation. Later, “when the investigation figured out that the officer had been set up, the charge was dropped and the criminal record was extinguished,” writes Proekt. The Project also reported that in March 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Tsibizov accused the division commander, Major General Surovikin, of beating him for political reasons. Later, Tsibizov withdrew his statement from the prosecutor's office.
In 2014, already being the commander of the Eastern Military District, according to the then head of Navalny’s headquarters, Leonid Volkov, Sergey Surovikin worked in the Rostov region, where he directed the dispatch of tank units subordinate to him to the southeast of Ukraine. In 2017, Putin appointed Surovikin as commander of the aerospace forces. Twice during this period he was sent to Syria, where he spent a total of more than a year. In June 2022, it became known that Surovikin was in command of the Southern Group of Forces in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense then reported that under the command of Surovikin, the troops completed "the defeat of the encircled grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the" Gorsky boiler ". In this post, he replaced Alexander Dvornikov.