Several top-ranking generals in the Russian Army have disappeared, at least from public view, following the failed rebellion of the Wagner mercenary group against Moscow. A situation that gives rise to versions of imprisonment, in the midst of what the Kremlin calls “gossip.” Meanwhile, the Russian government confirmed that this paramilitary force will stop fighting on its behalf in Ukraine. In other news, Russia maintains that at least two generals and up to 50 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the attack by their troops in Kramatorsk on Tuesday, June 27.
Arrested, disappeared or simply out of the public eye? The whereabouts of some high-ranking officers of the Russian Army are uncertain, but what is clear is that they have not been seen publicly since Moscow’s former ally in the war in Ukraine, the Wagner mercenary group, rebelled against the Kremlin Army, among last Friday June 23 and Saturday 24, and asked for the heads of its leaders, as well as that of the Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu.
This is General Sergei Surovikin, who has served as deputy commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine. Nicknamed ‘General Armageddon’ by the local press, he is known for his aggressive tactics in the Syrian conflict, where Moscow backs Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
The fate of General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces and who owns one of the three “nuclear briefcases” of the power, is also unknown, according to some military analysts.
The 67-year-old military man has not appeared in public or on state television since the Wagner uprising. Neither has he been mentioned in any press release from the Russian Defense Ministry since June 9, when Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded his expulsion from the military institution after calling him “incompetent.”
His possible whereabouts? In the case of Surovikin, the newspaper ‘Moscow Times’ and a military blogger, one of the few endorsed by the Kremlin to talk about the ongoing conflict, reported that he was arrested, while other correspondents noted that both he and other senior officers were being interrogated by the Federal Security Service of the (FSB for its acronym in Russian) to verify their “loyalty”.
After Wagner’s attempted insurrection, the behavior of the Russian military high command would be under scrutiny by the Kremlin. A report by ‘The New York Times’, citing US intelligence agency sources, said Surovikin had prior knowledge of the riot and that Russian authorities were checking whether he was complicit.
His alleged participation in the aborted uprising would point to the “absolute fracture” of the military leadership in Moscow.
The versions about his arrest are getting stronger. Alexei Venediktov, former head of ‘Ekho Moskvy’, a prominent independent radio station that was shut down by authorities after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of his neighboring country on February 24, 2022, claimed that Surovikin and his close lieutenants have not been in contact with their families for several days.
However, after being questioned about Surovikin’s possible disloyalty, on Wednesday June 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the information as “gossip”. And a day later, on Thursday, he refused to answer whether Putin still trusted the military high command.
De Gerasimov, the local media highlight his mysterious absence at various events attended by Putin and the embattled Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu.
“Purge” inside the Russian Army?
Other versions such as that of the Russian media ‘Rybar’, directed by a former press officer of the Ministry of Defense of that country, indicated that a “purge” was being carried out within the Moscow Armed Forces.
The objective would be to eliminate military personnel that Russia considers to have demonstrated a “lack of determination” to quickly stop the mutiny of the mercenaries.
“The armed insurgency of the private military company Wagner has become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces,” remarked ‘Rybar’.
The possible measures of the Kremlin against its own military are beginning to be revealed, but the confrontation of the Wagner militia against the Army that it supported for several months on the Ukrainian battlefront had been brewing since at least last May.
Since then, Prigozhin has staged stunning attacks, accusing Vladimir Putin’s army and defense ministry of exposing mercenaries as cannon fodder, while leaving them short of weapons and military equipment on the front lines. Something that, he assured, left enormous bloodshed and loss of life among his ranks.
Prigozhin also asked for Surovikin’s head during last weekend’s temporary rebellion that was aimed, as he promised then, to overthrow the top military commanders.
The patience of someone close to the Kremlin leader, known as “Putin’s cook”, would have run out after he accused Russian troops of bombing his men’s camps and causing dozens of deaths.
Within hours, Prigozhin announced that his fighters had taken the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and were marching on Moscow.
The plan that threatened to turn into a civil war in the Russian capital was aborted on Saturday, after an agreement in which Belarus, the great ally of the Kremlin, mediated in exchange for closing the criminal case against him for rebellion and the offer of go into exile in Belarusian territory, where Wagner’s boss arrived last Monday.
But without a doubt a confrontation of Russians against Russians was sighted that has generated tensions andin the military ‘establishment’ of the armed power until reaching the rupture of his alliance with the mercenaries, at least on Ukrainian territory.
If the “purge” in the military institution is confirmed, it could alter the way in which Russia wages the war against its former ally in the former Soviet Union and cause turmoil in its ranks, just as the invading troops try to thwart the Ukrainian counteroffensive to recover their territories.
Wagner stops fighting for Russia in Ukraine
The information was confirmed this Thursday, June 29, by the head of the Duma defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov.
According to the official, the paramilitary group will no longer fight on Ukrainian territory because Prigozhin refused to sign any contract with the Kremlin.
Kartapolov maintained that a few days before the rebellion attempt, the Ministry of Defense of his country announced that “all groups that carry out combat missions must sign a contract” with that portfolio, but that Wagner’s boss did not sign the agreements, because which he was informed that “Wagner would not participate in the special military operation”, as Russia refers to the invasion of Ukraine.
“That is, no funds, material resources are going to be allocated,” added the deputy.
This announcement comes a few days after Putin publicly offered the mercenaries the options of continuing to work for the Kremlin by signing a direct contract with the Russian Defense Ministry, or going into exile in Belarus.
Russia points out that two generals and 50 Ukrainian soldiers would have died in Kramatorsk
Until now, Moscow had not openly acknowledged its involvement in the twin missile attack in Kramatorsk, which left scenes of horror, amid the deaths of at least 12 people, including three children, and injured dozens.
Now, Russia points out that two generals and up to 50 Ukrainian soldiers died in the attack, information that has not been corroborated by kyiv.
Questioned in recent days about the tragedy, Russian officials had limited themselves to responding that they only attacked “military targets”, but the Ukrainian authorities reported civilian casualties.
The assault occurred against a restaurant packed with families and journalists. Among the survivors are three prominent Colombians: Catalina Gómez Ángel, the special envoy for France 24 in Spanish; Sergio Jaramillo, former Peace Commissioner, and the writer Héctor Abad Faciolince.
Around 60 people were injured, including prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who is in critical condition after sustaining skull injuries.
Amelina, who accompanied the group of Colombians, paused her successful career in literary fiction to take the reins of the investigation of crimes against humanity, in the midst of the horrors witnessed in the Russian war against her country.
With Reuters, AP and local media
