Media reports say Russian General Sergey Surovikin has been arrested over his suspected connection to the Wagner Group's mutiny last week.
General Sergey Surovikin, deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, is believed to have been detained days after mercenaries led by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a mutiny inside Russia.
“Russian General Sergey Surovikin has been arrested,” The Moscow Times' Russian Service reported Wednesday, citing two sources close to the Defense Ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Surovikin has not been seen in public since Saturday, when Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an armed rebellion against Russia's military leadership.
"The situation with him was not 'OK.' For the authorities. I can't say anything more," one of the sources said.
According to the second source, the arrest was carried out "in the context of Prigozhin." "Apparently, he [Surovikin] chose Prigozhin's side during the uprising, and they've gotten him by the balls," the source said.
Asked about the general's current whereabouts, the source replied: "We are not even commenting on this information through our internal channels."
The sources did not specify whether he was detained as a suspect or a witness.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday declined to comment on Surovikin's whereabouts, instead advising journalists to refer their questions to the Defense Ministry.
The New York Times reported on June 27 that Surovikin had known in advance about Prigozhin's mutiny.
Surovikin appeared in a video Saturday urging the Wagner Group to halt any moves against the army and return to their bases.
The Voice of America (VOA) reported yesterday that Surovikin’s daughter Veronika said that "everything is fine" with her father. "Honestly, no, nothing has happened to him. He's at work," she was cited as telling the Russian news outlet Baza.
Recall, Prigozhin arrived in Belarus earlier this week at the invitation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as part of a deal to halt the mutiny.
Prigozhin's arrival in Belarus came as Putin said Tuesday that Moscow had paid US$1 billion between May 2022 and May 2023 to fully fund the Wagner mercenary fighters, contrary to claims by Prigozhin that he had financed his mercenaries.
Sergey Surovikin (born October 11, 1966) is a Russian army general serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces. A veteran of the Soviet–Afghan War, Tajikistani Civil War, Second Chechen War, and the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, he was from October 2022 to January 2023 the commander of all Russian forces in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
