The chairman of the Coordination Commission for Air Defense of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has been appointed Russian General Serhii Surovykin, who was dismissed from the position of the head of the Russian Aerospace Forces after the armed mutiny of the Wagner group, Eurasia Daily reports. reported on Sunday, adopted by EFE, reports Agerpres.

According to the cited source, the appointment of Surovikin, who disappeared after the mutiny of Wagner’s group on June 24 and reappeared in public with his wife on September 4, was unanimously approved by representatives of the post-Wagner Council of Defense Ministers. the Soviet organization of the CIS.

After the rebellion of Wagner’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin, whom Surovikin urged to abandon the rebellion, the press and social media began to speculate about the general’s condition and whereabouts.

Surovikin fell out of favor after the failure of an armed uprising led by Prigozhin, who then declared that he was the only general he respected.

Both planned an operation to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut (Donetsk), which the mercenaries managed to achieve in May.

Prigozhin stated that with Surovikin at the head, his men would never have had problems with the provision of equipment and ammunition, for which he repeatedly criticized and blamed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the General Staff.

The Kremlin never confirmed the general’s arrest for his connections with the then head of the Wagner Group.

Vladimir Putin fired General Surovikin on the same day that Wagner’s mercenary boss was killed

Speculation about the general’s fate has grown since Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash late last month.

The information that appeared after the uprising showed that Surovikin was not only a close associate of Prigozhin, but also a documented member of Wagner’s group.

Russian media reported that Surovikin had been dismissed as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the name Moscow uses for its air force, also on August 23, a few hours before the plane crash that carried Prigozhin along with other top commanders of the Wagner group.

Several Russian sources, as well as major Western newspapers, said that Prigozhin was arrested immediately after the Prigozhin-led uprising on suspicion of supporting the Wagnerian military coup.

He changed command of the invasion force sent by Putin to Ukraine earlier this year, when the Kremlin leader decided to put the head of the “special military operation” Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff.

Before the mutiny of Wagner’s group, Surovikin remained in the post of Gerasimov’s deputy and commander of the Russian Air Force, which he held until the start of the war in Ukraine.

Who is Surovikin nicknamed “General Armageddon”

Gen. Serhiy Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian press for his brutality, is the Air Force commander who led Russian forces on the Ukrainian front from October to January.

Under Surovikin’s command, Russian forces launched missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and withdrew from the west bank of the Dnieper, leaving Kherson, the only regional center captured since the invasion began.

Surovikin, 56, is a veteran of Tajikistan’s civil war in the 1990s, the second Chechen war in the 2000s and the Russian intervention in Syria that began in 2015.

Awarded personally by President Vladimir Putin, Surovikin argued that the withdrawal, which officially ended two days later, would allow Moscow to salvage equipment and redeploy forces — estimated by the U.S. at 30,000 troops — for offensive operations on other fronts.