VLADIMIR Putin is set to deploy his General Armageddon, known as the “Butcher of Syria”, to starve Ukraine into submission, experts have warned.
Bloodthirsty Sergei Surovikin, 59, will “try and break the will of the population” as Mad Vlad “takes the gloves off”, a former senior British military commander has revealed.
Surovikin, one of Russia’s cruellest commanders, is reportedly back in Moscow after being banished to command Russian troops in Algeria.
Retired Major-General Chip Chapman told The Sun that sick Surovikin will likely deploy evil tactics to try to crush the spirits of the Ukrainian population as Russian forces flail on the front lines.
He endorsed using nuclear weapons early on in Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and headed up the tyrant’s entire invading forces from October 2022 to January 2023.
But after plotting a coup led by Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin that summer Surovikin was exiled to North Africa.
Major-General Chapman said Surovikin “is absolutely the right guy” to carry out the twisted tactics.
He said: “Surovikin first came to my attention in Syria.
“He was known there as the butcher of Syria and it was Surovikin who really formulated the campaign plan in 2017 which enabled the tide turning in favour of Assad because of his approach to really annihilating life in cities.”
Surovikin oversaw the obliteration of Aleppo as commander of Russia‘s aerospace unit, when Putin intervened in the country in 2015 on the side of the tyrant President Bashar al-Assad.
Under his command, Russian forces reportedly covered up the use of nerve agent sarin before a deadly chemical attack that killed 80.
Major-General Chapman said: “If you can’t succeed on the front line, what do you try and do?
“You try and break the will of the population in the same way that the Russians and Syrians did that to the opposition by making cities uninhabitable.
“That is all the basic infrastructure of life, water, sewage, clinics, bakeries, all the things that they hit in Syria look to be on the target list in Kyiv and certainly eastern Ukraine at the moment.”
Surovikin’s soldiers have repeatedly been accused of violence against civilians.
He commanded dozens of air and ground attacks on innocent people in Syria, targeting civilian objects and infrastructure, according to a 2020 Human Rights Watch report.
The report said his forces struck Syrian “homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and markets – the places where people live, work, and study”.
Russian military commentator Colonel Viktor Baranets confirmed Surovikin’s move back to Moscow, saying: “Generals like this don’t lie around on the sofa.
It has sparked fears that he could turn his illegal targeting of civilians to Ukraine as the country heads into yet another winter under Russian bombardment.
Some have suggested General Armageddon could spearhead operations to seize the Ukrainian stronghold cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, where Russian forces continue to lose ground.
Others have speculated is that he could command a new offensive on Kyiv through to occupied Chernihiv.
Major-General Chapman said: “Do I think that he could energise the close battle which is taking place on the front line? No I don’t.
“But do I think he could energise that deep battle in terms of the destruction that could go on in Kyiv and other cities? Yes he could and that’s the whole point of it.
“Indeed the UN I think in 2024 when they looked at his approach in Syria talked about him as using starvation until submission.
“Now we’re seeing food distribution points, food warehouses being attacked now along with all those the fabric of the electricity grid for example.”
And Major-General Chapman warned that Putin is taking the “gloves off” “in terms of their approach to the laws of war”.
He said: “Any sort of Geneva Convention type laws of conflict seem to be going out the window.
“Many would argue that they already went out of the window, which is why we shouldn’t forget that Putin is still a criminal in the eyes of the International Criminal Court.”
It comes as stark new figures show how Putin is increasingly targeting civilians in Ukraine.
The UN Human Rights Office said an average of more than 400 civilians were killed or wounded every week in Ukraine during the first eight months of 2026.
This is a 55 per cent increase from the same period in 2025.
A total of 15,280 civilians were killed or injured during the first eight months of the year, according to the report.