Russia has turned its attention to 60-year-old General Alexander Dvornikov, one of Russia’s most experienced military officials and, according to US officials, a general with a history of atrocities against civilians in Syria and other war theaters. The senior official who identified the new commander had no authority to identify himself and spoke on condition of anonymity. However, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that “no appointment of a general can erase the fact that Russia has already faced a strategic failure in Ukraine.” “This general will just be another writer of crimes and barbarism against Ukrainian civilians,” Sullivan told CNN’s State of the Union. “And the United States, as I said before, is determined to do what we can to support the Ukrainians as they resist and resist the forces it commands.” The decision to create a new leadership on the battlefield comes as Russia prepares for a major and more focused push to expand Russian control over Donbass and after a failed attempt to seize Kiev, the capital. Dvornikov gained prominence while leading the Russian forces in Syria, where Moscow has been campaigning since 2015 to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad during a devastating civil war. Dvornikov is a career military officer and steadily rose through the ranks after serving as a squad commander in 1982. He fought during the second war in Chechnya and took many top positions before taking command of Russian troops in Syria in 2015. In 2016, Putin awarded Dvornikov the Hero of Russia Medal, one of the country’s highest awards. Dvornikov has been serving as commander of the Southern Military District since 2016. Sullivan described the general as having a history of atrocities against civilians in Syria and said “we can expect more from him in this theater”. However, he stressed that the US strategy remains the same, providing Ukraine with the military and logistical support it needs.
