The US anticipates more “atrocities” and acts of “brutality” against Ukrainian civilians under the command of the new Russian general

On Sunday, the United States interpreted 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 to the arrival at the helm of the Russian offensive of Alexander Dvornikov, hardened at 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 scenario,” said Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden's national security adviser.

In an interview with CNN, Sullivan predicted that Dvornikov “will be yet another perpetrator of crimes and brutality against Ukrainian civilians.”

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki also said in an interview with Fox News that the Russian general “is responsible for atrocities” in Syria, saying that his appointment implies that there will be a “continuation” of such “brutality” in Ukraine.

Russia does not often publicize its changes of military command and has not confirmed that it has entrusted this new role to Dvornikov, who made his fame in the Second Chechen War (2000), the contest that brought President Vladimir Putin to power.

It is American and Western sources who have reported the change of command in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, now concentrated in the eastern Donbas region after failing to take Kiev and other parts of the country in an early phase of the war.

Dvornikov, who was decorated by Putin for his military services in 2016, allegedly has a deadline to take the Donbas until May 9, the USSR Victory Day over Nazi Germany, according to Western experts and sources.

Sullivan said on Sunday that, although this appointment does not induce optimism, his arrival will not necessarily lead to a major escalation in atrocities in Ukraine, since these have already occurred since the beginning of the war a month and a half ago.

“We have already seen military scorched earth tactics (in Ukraine), we have seen atrocities and war crimes and mass executions and terrifying and shocking images of places like Bucha, and the missile attack on Kramatorsk (railway station),” Sullivan said in another interview with CBS News.

“So I think this is a sign that we will see more of that,” he added.

Biden's adviser further stressed that the United States is “determined to do everything possible to support Ukrainians as they resist him (Dvornikov) and the soldiers he leads.”

“No appointment of any general can erase the fact that Russia has already had a strategic failure in Ukraine (...). Ukraine will never be subjugated by Russia; it doesn't matter which general President Putin tries to appoint,” Sullivan stressed on CNN.

While the Ukrainian authorities insist that they need more weapons to deal with the final Russian offensive against the Donbas, which they have already begun, Sullivan underlined the scale of the military aid that the United States has already provided to Ukraine.

In his interview with CBS, the adviser assured that Washington developed last week with Kiev a “plan” for Ukrainians to get “each and every thing they need” either from the United States, or from their allies in Europe and elsewhere.

“Some things have already been delivered, others are on the way and others we are working to achieve them,” he said.

This is the context of Friday's announcement that Slovakia will send its air defense system to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian planes and missiles, something that the Slovak Government has agreed to in exchange for the US deploying a Patriot anti-missile battery on its territory.

Sullivan further revealed that the United States is “evaluating (delivering) systems that would require some training for Ukrainians” and is talking to Kiev about “how that could be done outside the country,” without giving further 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 in late February.

However, since the conclusion 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 Switchblade-type drones.

(With information from EFE)

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