Vladimir Putin has put a commander with a history of brutality against civilians in charge of Russia’s army in a bid to reboot his floundering invasion of Ukraine.
General Alexander Dvornikov, 60, has been described as an ‘old school’ strategist who sees civilians as fair game and has no qualms about ‘reducing cities to rubble’.
He became known as the ‘butcher of Syria’ after heading Russian forces helping dictator Bashar Al-Assad crush rebels in a bloody campaign which is estimated to have claimed at least 160,000 civilian lives.
Putin awarded him the title of ‘Hero of the Russian Federation’ for his leadership, which saw more than 9,000 Russian-led bombings on Syrian towns and cities in a nine-month period from September 2015.
Many of the strikes targeted essential infrastructure like hospitals, water sources, schools and markets, according to humanitarian watchdogs.
Earlier in his career, he commanded a commanded a regiment in the second Battle of Grozny in 1999, Russia’s invasion of the Chechen capital which killed thousands of civilians.
Since leaving his Syrian command post, he has been commander of Russia’s southern military district.
Until his appointment, confirmed by US intelligence sources on Sunday, Russia had no central commander on the ground in Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion is said to have been blighted by ‘poor coordination’ between different forces, Western officials told the BBC.
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,’ he told CNN.
‘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.’
Sullivan described Dvornikov as having a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and said ‘we can expect more of the same in this theatre’.
Following its costly failed bid to capture the capital of Kyiv, Russia is said to be gearing up for a renewed push to expand control in the Donbas, where Ukrainian resistance forces have remained entrenched near the eastern Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia is now thought to have an advantage in firepower after concentrating its supplies, but morale remains a problem after heavy losses.
Ukrainian troops in the area are said to be similar in number and include many of the country’s most experienced and motivated fighters, seasoned from eight years of trench warfare against the separatists.
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