Putin’s ‘General Armageddon’ Comments on His Firing After Attending Church

The former commander of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, also known as “General Armageddon,” has reportedly commented on his firing for the first time since the the Wagner Group’s aborted mutiny in June.

Surovikin, who earned his nickname in Russian media because of his aggressive military tactics in Chechnya and Syria, has been pictured just twice since he was seen in a video appeal calling for an end to the June 24 mutiny led by the late Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, with whom he was reported to have a good relationship.

He was reportedly arrested in June and dismissed as the head of Russia’s Aerospace Forces in August. Surovkin is rumored to have been appointed as the head of the Coordination Committee on Air Defense Issues under the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), but that hasn’t been confirmed.

Novye Izvestia reported on Tuesday that it had spoken with Surovikin outside a church in the Moscow region.

“I serve the fatherland. No more comments,” Surovikin reportedly told the news outlet, which published a photo of the general during his visit to “one of the churches near Moscow.”

The publication didn’t specify which church Surovikin had visited, but Agentstvo, an investigative site launched in 2021, reported that the photo was taken at the Church of the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki in the village of Dmitrovskoe—located not far from a restaurant where Surovikin was photographed a month ago.

Questions were raised about Surovikin’s whereabouts after he was notably missing from a July 10 meeting of military officials. A senior Russian politician said in July that Surovikin was “resting.”

Reports in July based on a U.S. intelligence briefing suggested that the general had known in advance about Prigozhin’s plans to march on Moscow. Reuters reported U.S. intelligence as saying Surovikin was sympathetic to the Wagner rebellion, but it was unclear if he actively supported it.

Days after Prigozhin’s failed uprising, the Russian-language version of The Moscow Times cited Russian defense ministry sources as saying that Surovikin had been arrested for siding with Prigozhin as he planned his aborted mutiny.

Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov also said on Telegram that Surovikin had been arrested on June 25.

Russian officials didn’t confirm Surovikin’s arrest. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s foreign ministry for comment via email.

In early September, Viktor Zavarzin, a member of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee suggested that Surovikin was working “in the CIS.”

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