(MENAFN- UkrinForm) General Sergei Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief Russian Aerospace Forces and deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, has not appeared in public since the 23-24 June 2023 Wagner Group mutiny. The British Ministry of Defense said this in a new intelligence update published on its twitter account, Ukrinform reports.
“General Sergei Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief Russian Aerospace Forces and deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, has not been seen in public since the 23-24 June 2023 Wagner Group mutiny. Meanwhile, Deputy Defence Minister Colonel General Yunus-bek Yevkurov was notably absent from a televised appearance by the Ministry of Defence's leadership on 03 July 2023,” the report says.
Read also: borrell says need to further support ukraine is the main lesson from mutiny in russia The British Ministry of Defense added that reports of Surovikin's arrest cannot be confirmed, but authorities will likely be suspicious of his long association with Wagner dating back to his service in Syria from 2017.
“Similarly, Yevkurov was filmed talking to Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin during the group's uncontested take-over of Rostov-on-Don,” the report says.
It is noted that although largely known in the West by his brutal reputation, Surovikin is one of the more respected senior officers within the Russian military; any official sanction against him is likely to be divisive.
“The suspicion that has potentially fallen on senior serving officers highlights how Prigozhin's abortive insurrection has worsened existing fault lines within Russia's national security community,” the British Ministry of Defense said.
Read also: osce pa recognizes russia as state sponsor of terrorism, wagner mercenaries as terrorists As reported, on June 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, announced a démarche against the Russian military leadership, in particular against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
On June 24, Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin. Following the talks, the private army's leader announced he was turning his forces around from a march toward Moscow.
Putin, in turn, said that the Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense or go to Belarus.
The spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, said that Belarus can accommodate about 8,000 mercenaries of the Wagner PMC on its territory, the development of the situation is under Ukraine's constant control.
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