For at least the fourth time since the February invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced a senior military commander overseeing the military operation amid ongoing military and security failures in the region, NBC News reports.
Two days after his 70th birthday and a day after the bombing of a key bridge in Crimea, Putin announced that Sergei Surovikin would take over all military and security operations in the occupied Ukrainian territories, the first time Putin has named a unified commander for the operation. Putin had previously replaced commanders when operations faltered in April, June and August. In June, he also conducted what observers called a “purge” of senior military commanders overseeing the invasion. In August, Putin also replaced the head of naval operations in the Black Sea after the sinking of the Black Sea fleet’s flagship.
The head of Russia’s Air Force, Surovikin oversaw Russian operations in Syria, where the Kremlin relies mostly on unofficial mercenaries to conduct its operations, with Russian military largely providing support functions so as to not face Western-backed faction directly. While he was in command, the Russians undertook the devastating bombing of Aleppo in 2016, where hospitals and civilian facilities were destroyed in the wholesale destruction of the city that resulted in nearly 1,000 civilians dead in four months.