KYIV: Russian President Vladimir Putin has summoned the Butcher of Syria, Captain General Aleksandr Dvornikov, who helped Syrian president Bashar al-Assad crush his enemies in the civil war, to redeem the disastrous Ukraine invasion in which Moscow, by its own admission, has suffered huge losses.
During the general’s time, chemical weapons and indiscriminate air strikes were used in Syria - resulting in thousands of civilian casualties, western media reports said.
The 60-year-old general is also believed to be the man behind Friday's missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station, which killed at least 52 civilians.
According to Daily Mail, his battlefield intelligence is highly regarded by western generals, and he is believed to be familiar with the Donbas theatre of war - where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014.
Analysts believe Putin wants to create a land corridor between Russia and Crimea - something that heavy Ukrainian resistance is preventing, according to Britain's Ministry of Defence. Putin wants his forces to have seized enough of Ukraine by May 9 for him to declare victory on the Russian anniversary of Nazi Germany surrendering in 1945, and thus ending the Second World War in Europe, the Daily Mail adds.
JOHNSON IN KYIV: Brritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday in an unannounced visit, after travelling to the capital late on Friday. A picture shared by Ukrainian officials showed the pair sitting across a table. Details of the meeting had not been made public prior to the image's release. The Embassy of Ukraine in the UK shared the picture with the inscription 'Surprise' with a winking face emoji. A No 10 spokesman said the Prime Minister was using the unannounced visit to set out a new package of financial and military aid. On Friday, Johnson announced Britain would send weapons worth £100million to Ukraine.
