Russia appoints new Ukraine war commander with history of brutality, says US official

After its striking post-invasion setbacks, Russia has appointed a new Ukraine war Commander, a US official said on Sunday.

Russia turned to General Alexander Dvornikov, 60, one of Russia’s most experienced military officers and – according to US officials – a general with a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and other war theatres. Up to now, Russia had no central war commander on the ground.

The senior US official who confirmed the general’s appointment was not authorised to be identified and spoke on condition of anonymity.

But the White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said, “no appointment of any general can erase the fact that Russia has already faced a strategic failure in Ukraine.”

“This general will just be another author of crimes and brutality against Ukrainian civilians,” Sullivan said. “And the United States, as I said before, is determined to do all that we can to support Ukrainians as they resist him and they resist the forces that he commands.”

The decision to establish new battlefield leadership comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a large and more focused push to expand Russian control in Ukraine’s east and south, including the Donbas, and follows a failed opening bid in the north to conquer Kyiv, the capital.

Dvornikov gained prominence while leading the Russian group of forces in Syria, where Moscow has waged a military campaign to shore up President Bashar al-Assad’s regime during a devastating civil war.

Dvornikov is a career military officer and has steadily risen through the ranks after starting as a platoon commander in 1982. He fought during the second war in Chechnya and took several top positions before being placed in charge of the Russian troops in Syria in 2015.