The United States interpreted this Sunday the appointment of a new Russian general to coordinate the war in Ukraine as a sign that more “atrocities” and acts of “brutality” against Ukrainian civilians are to come.
Senior White House officials reacted in this way to the arrival in command of the Russian offensive of Alexandr Dvórnikov, seasoned in the war in Syria and current head of the southern military district, which includes the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
“This general, in particular, has a history that includes brutality against civilians in other settings, in Syria, and we can expect more of the same in this setting,” said Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
In an interview with the television network CNN, Sullivan predicted that Dvórnikov “will be yet another perpetrator of crimes and brutality against civilians Ukrainians”.
The White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, also assured in an interview with Fox News that the Russian general “is responsible for atrocities” in Syria, and believed that his designation implies that there will be a “continuation” of this type of “brutality” in Ukraine.
Russia does not usually publicize its changes in military command and has not confirmed that it has assigned this new role to Dvórnikov, who made his fame in the Second Chechen War (2000), the contest that brought President Vladimir Putin to power.
It is US and Western sources that have reported the change of command in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, now concentrated in the eastern region of Donbas after failing to take kyiv and other areas of the country in the first phase of the war.
Dvórnikov, who was decorated by Putin for his military services in 2016, allegedly has deadline to take the Donbas until May 9, Victory Day of the USSR over Nazi Germany, according to Western experts and sources.
Sullivan said this Sunday that, although this appointment does not lead to optimism, his arrival will not mean necessarily a major escalation in the atrocities in Ukraine, since these have already occurred since the beginning of the war a month and a half ago.
“We have already seen scorched earth military tactics (in Ukraine ), we have seen atrocities and war crimes and mass executions and shocking and terrifying images from places like Bucha, and the missile attack on (the train station in) Kramatorsk,” Sullivan said in another interview with CBS News.
“So I think this is a sign that we will see more of that”, he added.
“Ukraine will never be subjugated by Russia”
Biden’s adviser also stressed that the United States is “determined to do everything possible to support the Ukrainians while they resist against him (Dvornikov) and the soldiers he leads”.
“No appointment of any general can erase the fact that Russia has already had a strategic failure. or in Ukraine (…). Ukraine will never be subjugated by Russia; no matter which general President Putin tries to appoint,” Sullivan stressed on CNN.
While the Ukrainian authorities insist that they need more weapons to face the final Russian offensive against Donbas, which have already begun, Sullivan underlined the extent of the military aid that the United States has already provided to Ukraine.
In his interview with CBS, the adviser assured that Washington developed a “plan” last week with kyiv so that the Ukrainians get “each and every one of the things they need” either from the United States, or from its allies in Europe and other areas.
“Some things we have already delivered, others they are on the way and we are working to achieve others”, he affirmed.
Friday’s announcement that Slovakia will send its anti-aircraft defense system to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian planes and projectiles is framed in this context. , something to that the Slovak government has agreed to in exchange for the US deploying a Patriot anti-missile battery on its territory.
Sullivan also revealed that the United States is “evaluating (delivering) systems that would require some training for the Ukrainians” and is talking with kyiv about “how that could be done outside the country”, without giving more details.
This Sunday, precisely, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, spoke via teleconference with “a small number of Ukrainian soldiers” who were about to take off for Ukraine after completing training in Biloxi (Mississippi, USA).
As Pentagon spokesman John Kirby explained in a statement, the group was already in the United States receiving training when the invasion of Ukraine began at the end of February.
However, since the end of its official program in early March, the Ukrainian military has received “advanced” tactical training and training to use “the systems that the United States has provided to Ukraine”, including drones of the type Switchblade.
mg (efe, Reuters)
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