As the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine enters its eighth month, Russia has appointed a new commander to command all of its forces.
Sergei Surovikin, a general in the Russian Army who also commands the country’s air force, previously led Russian forces in Syria. His new role will entail rallying Russian troops following a string of setbacks, including significant troop and equipment losses and the loss of thousands of square miles of occupied territory.
Sergei Surovikin’s appointment follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of plans to conscript hundreds of thousands of Russian men for the war. Putin’s order for approximately 300,000 Russians to join the fight in Ukraine is the first time Moscow has drafted civilians into the military since World War II.
A series of stunning Ukrainian advances in recent weeks prompted the Kremlin’s decision to impose a partial draught.
Putin declared last week that four Ukrainian regions now belonged to Russia. The Russian leader cited referendums held in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which Western governments widely regard as rigged and illegal.
“The results are well known,” Putin stated on September 30. “Russia has four new regions,” referring to the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Following Putin’s speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that his country will submit a “accelerated” application to join the NATO military alliance.
Ukrainian forces, armed with Western weapons, have retaken vast swaths of territory that had been occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of the war. Their battlefield victories have tarnished the Kremlin’s mighty war machine.
However, the cost to civilians has been enormous as Ukraine fights to retake land one village at a time.
So far, the United Nations estimates that Russia’s invasion has claimed over 6,000 civilian lives and resulted in over 8,600 injuries. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the death toll in Ukraine is likely to be higher.
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