In the midst of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the Russian general in command of the southern front and deputy commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine “is resting and not available for now”. This was said yesterday in Moscow by deputy Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Defense Committee of the Duma. This relaxation seems inappropriate to the circumstances, but since it is General Sergey Sorovikin, everything is better understood.
A Russian media disclosed yesterday that Surovikin “was arrested by the FSB on suspicion of participation in the organization of the rebellion, but has not yet been charged with the facts” and that in two weeks he has not communicated with his family. The aforementioned rebellion is, of course, that of the mercenary group Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 23 and 24. Since then he has not been seen. Rumors of the arrest began immediately, barely palliated by the version that he would be summering in the Caucasus and by his daughter’s assertion that “nothing has happened to him”. According to Russian media, the general, who enjoys prestige among the military commands, might not be detained, but forced to keep silent and not be seen.
Surovikin was commander-in-chief of the Russian forces in Ukraine between October 2022 and January 2023, when the chief of the General Staff, General Valery Guerassimov, took over directly. Gerassimov was not seen from early June until Monday, when a video of him was released. Nor did he appear after the Wagner rebellion.
These absences are more notorious after the Kremlin’s revelation that Putin received Yevgeny Prigozhin – and his commanders – five days after the revolt, just as his friend Surovikin stopped being seen.
Not all Russian generals disappear in the same way. Another deputy and fellow general, Andrei Guruliov, confirmed on television that Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, deputy commander of the southern military district, was killed in Berdiansk, a coastal city and one of the possible targets of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Tsokov, according to other sources, would have been the victim of a long-range Storm Shadow missile, manufactured by a European consortium, one of the leading weapons received by Kyiv. Another such missile in June killed General Sergei Goriachev, the first Russian high command killed since the start of the counteroffensive and the seventh confirmed general since the start of the invasion, although some sources count at least a dozen generals dead.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts, meanwhile, remain unknown, but yesterday the Ministry of Defense announced that post-rebellion agreements are being met and that the Wagners have handed over 2,000 pieces of equipment and heavy weapons, such as tanks and Grad rocket systems, plus more than 20,000 individual weapons and 2,500 tons of ammunition.
