“After a Long Illness”
Ex-commander of Russian invasion forces is dead
08/16/2023, 10:16 p.m
In May 2022, Gennady Shidko took over the post of supreme commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, which became an ejection seat for many military personnel. Like for “General Armageddon”. Schidko can only hold the post for a short time. His death is now reported.
Colonel-General and former Russian deputy defense minister Gennady Shidko has died at the age of 57 “after a long illness”. This was announced by the governor of the Khabarovsk region Mikhail Degtyarev on Telegram with. At the end of May 2022, Schidko took over the management of the Russian units in Ukraine for several months and at that time succeeded General Alexander Dvornikov, who was appointed commander-in-chief by Putin in April 2022. Dvornikov commanded the Russian troops in Syria from September 2015 to June 2016, earning him the nickname “Butcher of Syria” in particular for the brutal crackdown on civilians in the Aleppo bombing. Since being replaced by Schidko, Dwornikov has been considered missing.
Shidko was also previously the chief of staff of the Russian forces in Syria and ended up on the US sanctions list in March 2022. However, he could not hold his post for long. Because just a month after his appointment in May, he was demoted to chief of the military district east. In October 2022, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon”, had taken over Shidko’s position.
In January 2023, however, he also lost his job and, as announced by Shoigu, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov followed. From then on, Surovikin took over the post of deputy chief of staff, although he has apparently fallen out of favor since the Wagner uprising and has not been seen in public. He is accused of being an ally of the exiled Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. After the mercenary uprising, the New York Times, citing US government circles, reported that Washington was trying to find out whether Surovikin helped Prigozhin plan the rebellion.
How “political” Now reported with reference to Russian military bloggers and local media, “General Armageddon” is now under house arrest and has been relieved of his leadership role in the Russian military. As quoted from the blog “VChK-OGPU”, “there is no official investigation, but Surovikin spent a long time in limbo, answering awkward questions.” The general was advised to stay under the radar so that he would be “forgotten.”