From Grozny, Chechnya, to the heart of Aleppo, Syria, General Dvornikov has a sulphurous reputation as a soldier ready to do anything to achieve his goals.
“The Butcher of Syria”. It was with these words that Aleksandr Dvornikov got the nickname of theformer CIA chief, David Petraus. The 60-year-old Russian general owes this nickname to his role during the war in Syria. He is even accused of being behind the crushing of Aleppo, the second largest city in the country after the capital Damascus.
“His job is to finish what the others couldn’t do,” explains Patrick Sauce, international political columnist on our antenna.
From Moscow, he is now the man for the job, as he was appointed by Vladimir Putin on Sunday to lead the rest of the operations in Ukraine. An unofficial announcement, but confirmed to various Anglo-Saxon media outlets by US military sources.
Why he?
He was chosen because of his experience. This native of the Russian Far East, near Vladivostok, is the man for difficult situations. A career soldier, he has risen steadily since his debut as a platoon commander in 1982, recalls the guard† He fought in the second war in Chechnya and held several leadership positions before being appointed to command the Russian forces in Syria.
Aleksandr Dvornikov was sent by Putin to Bashar al-Assad’s country in September 2015 to stabilize the position of Syrian regime forces, which at the time, according to Tehran and Moscow, were on the brink of falling into opposition hands.
In Syria, Dvornikov quickly established an air base near the northwest coast, from which bombings devastated towns and villages in Idlib province. The fall of Aleppo is largely attributable to Russian air strikes from the Hmeimim base. These targeted hospitals, schools, bread rows and other pillars of civilian life. This mission earned Dvornikov to be awarded a “Hero of the Russian Federation” by Vladimir Putin in September 2016.
Military reorganization of the Ukrainian conflict
From a hoped-for blitzkrieg, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned into trench warfare. More than a month after the start of the conflict, several battle zones seem to be freezing as the days go by.
To avoid a scenario similar to that of Donbass, where the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists have been encamped since 2014, Vladimir Putin is prepared for anything. With the aim of settling the conflict before 9 May, the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. On BFMTV this Tuesday morning, our specialist Patrick Sauce clarified:
“The Russian army has lost nearly a dozen generals because they each managed a section of the fronts single-handedly. General Dvornikov knows this area very well, having been in charge of Russia’s southwestern military district until now.” So he knows everything his troops, from Georgia to the Sea of Azov. If he was appointed, it is because by May 9 it is not necessary to take the Donbass, but completely crush it with his method: war crimes. †
An analysis similar to that of the Institute for the Study of Waran influential US military analysis blog, about the organization of the front in Ukraine.
On Monday, Ukrainian troops said they were preparing for the fall of Mariupol, a strategic port in the southeast that was besieged by the Russian army for more than 40 days. After six weeks of intense strikes and fighting, the city has already been largely destroyed.
The arrival at Dvornikov’s checkpoint threatens to speed things up. Patrick Sauce therefore considers this appointment as “extremely worrying for the Ukrainians”.
