Vladimir Putin is reportedly set to redeploy his most ruthless military chief, Sergei Surovikin, known as 'General Armageddon', to the Ukrainian battlefield after a period of exile. The 59-year-old commander, famed for his brutality and early calls to drop nuclear bombs on Ukraine, is claimed to have returned to Moscow after being banished to North Africa.
Kremlin weighs Surovikin's return
Russian military analyst Colonel Viktor Baranets said Kremlin officials are now desperately trying to work out how to unleash the cold-blooded strategist. "Generals like this don't lie around on the sofa," Colonel Baranets said. "Russia and its army need such generals."
"In the Kremlin and the Defence Ministry they are seriously racking their brains over how to fit Surovikin – a tough, decisive and powerful military commander – into the realities currently taking shape on the battlefield," he added.
Surovikin previously took command of the invasion in October 2022 before Putin removed him from the role in January 2023. The Russian leader froze out the Chechnya and Syria veteran after suspecting he was secretly in cahoots with rebel Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during his failed armed coup. Prigozhin later died in a suspicious fiery plane crash widely blamed on the Kremlin.
Potential offensive targets
Military sources reckon General Armageddon could be drafted in to lead an assault on Ukrainian strongholds Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, where Russian troops have been getting battered. Another theory suggests he could be tasked with launching a fresh advance on Kyiv via occupied Chernihiv.
The potential redeployment comes as Russia is claimed to have turned to a sinister 'no rules' warfare approach specifically aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians. Shocking UN Human Rights Office data reveals more than 400 civilians have been slaughtered or maimed every single week on average in Ukraine during the first eight months of 2026.
Ukraine inflicts costly blows
That represents a 55 per cent surge compared to the same timeframe in 2025, bringing the total casualties to a grim 15,280 civilians hit in just eight months. Rumours of Surovikin's big comeback arrive as Ukraine inflicts humiliating blows on Putin's hardware.
A devastating Ukrainian drone attack on the Khanskaya air base in Adygea recently wiped out two prized Russian warplanes, a Su-35S and a Su-34, burning a £112 million hole in Putin's pocket. Ukraine also obliterated Europe's largest oil storage facility in the Samara region, destroying £151 million worth of fuel. Russia retaliated by hammering oil tanks in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.
Attempting to flex his muscles to the West, Putin also ordered high-stakes anti-submarine war games in the Barents Sea targeting imaginary NATO forces. A Russian military statement confirmed: "The formation's ships operated as part of a naval search-and-strike group, practicing the search for and destruction of a simulated enemy submarine in coordination with Northern Fleet submarines and anti-submarine aircraft."
"Air defence tasks, including a series of anti-aircraft live-fire engagements, were also practiced during the exercise." Warships Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov were brought in to lead the naval drill.
