Though General Surovikin was ostensibly Mr Shoigu’s choice, it is clear that Mr Putin made the decision. Both blame Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, for Russia’s failures in Ukraine. As well as Mr Prigozhin, General Surovikin has been welcomed by Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya. The appointment will also appease a growing chorus of hardline critics who accuse the Kremlin of being too soft on Ukraine. He believes General Surovikin could deliver this type of image. “The army needs a figure of a supreme leader to lead them into battle,” says Dmitry Adamsky, a professor at Reichman University. It may also be seeking a figurehead for disaffected troops. With his appointment, Russia seems to be trying to improve communication between its units. Officially, he is the first overall commander of the war. Nigel Gould-Davies, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank, says General Surovikin’s promotion is a “response to failure”. But he has thus far failed to secure the Kherson region, where a Ukrainian counter-offensive has retaken more than 1,170 square kilometres of land since late August, according to Ukraine’s army. He has orchestrated some of Russia’s most significant advances. General Surovikin took command of the southern front in Ukraine in June. In recent months, Mr Prigozhin had lobbied for General Surovikin’s appointment as the most senior commander in Ukraine. His experience in Syria-where Russia allied with the Syrian regime that unleashed chemical weapons on its population- also brought him closer to Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group of mercenaries fought in the war. That campaign killed 1,600 civilians and displaced 1.4m people, according to Human Rights Watch, a pressure group. Two years later he led Russian forces as they began the bloody capture of Idlib province in north-west Syria. His role in the Syrian war secured him a Hero of Russia medal, the country’s highest honorary title, and an unlikely promotion to head of the air force in 2017, despite having little experience of aviation. He bolstered his reputation for ruthlessness during both wars in Chechnya, where he reportedly promised to kill three Chechens for every Russian soldier who died. General Surovikin’s rise in spite of this troubling past is explained by his unflinching readiness to execute orders. He spent six months in prison after soldiers under his command killed three civilians charges were eventually dismissed. When hardliners attempted a coup in Russia in 1991, he was one of a tiny number of officers to follow their orders to attack pro-democracy protesters. General Surovikin was born in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk in 1966 and started his military career in the 1980s with the Soviet special forces in Afghanistan. Who is he, and what does his promotion reveal about the Russian invasion? General Surovikin is believed to have directed the war for months-but his formal appointment on October 8th marks a cruel new chapter. Nicknamed “General Armageddon” by his colleagues, he has a fearsome reputation hardened over decades. It was a suitably grisly way of marking the promotion of Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s new overall commander in Ukraine. Researchers continue to evaluate new materials and designs to increase the capabilities, features and level of protection of future ballistic eyewear.O N OCTOBER 10th more than 300 towns and cities across Ukraine were hit with the largest Russian air bombardment since the early days of the war. Wear compliance rose dramatically for the stylish protective eyewear, reaching 85% to 95% and eye injuries decreased across the Department of Defense even as the incidence of attacks in Iraq increased. Optical devices that met ballistic standards formed the first Authorized Protective Eyewear List and were fielded beginning in 2004. Program Executive Office Soldier, the optometry consultant to the Army Surgeon General, members of the Tri-Service Vision Conservation and Readiness Program, and other subject matter experts selected and tested commercial off-the-shelf eye protection against military ballistic impact standards. In 2003, the 10th Mountain Division requested enhanced eye protection. Dismal wear compliance prior to 2004 indicates Soldiers and their leaders did not appreciate these improvements and found little value in the bulky, ugly, and uncomfortable products. Products derived from experiences in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Iran/Iraq war drove technical improvements throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Appreciation for combat eye protection steadily increased following World War II.
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