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Russia Names Air Force General to Lead its Forces in Ukraine

Air Force General Sergei Surovikin. Russia Today
Air Force General Sergei Surovikin. Russia Today
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Russia Names Air Force General to Lead its Forces in Ukraine

Air Force General Sergei Surovikin. Russia Today
Air Force General Sergei Surovikin. Russia Today

Russia's Defense Ministry on Saturday named Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Moscow's third senior military appointment in the space of a week.

The change follows the reported sacking earlier this week of the commanders of two of Russia's five military regions, as its forces have suffered a series of dramatic reverses in northeastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks.

The ministry did not say who, if anyone, Surovikin was replacing, Reuters reported.

British military intelligence said in April that General Alexander Dvornikov had been appointed to take charge of Russian forces in Ukraine, almost two months after Moscow began what it calls its "special military operation", in an attempt to "centralize command and control".

However, Moscow itself has not specified that anyone is in overall military command of the operation.

Surovikin, 55, has led Russia's Air and Space Forces since 2017. According to the ministry's website, he commanded a guards division stationed in Chechnya in 2004, during Moscow's war against extremists, and was awarded a medal for his service in Syria in 2017.

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China Reportedly Tells its AI Leaders to Avoid US Travel over Security Concerns

FILE PHOTO: A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
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China Reportedly Tells its AI Leaders to Avoid US Travel over Security Concerns

FILE PHOTO: A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

Chinese authorities are instructing the country's top artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid travel to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The authorities are concerned that Chinese AI experts traveling abroad could divulge confidential information about the nation's progress, the newspaper said.
Authorities also fear that executives could be detained and used as a bargaining chip in US-China negotiations, the Journal said, drawing parallels to the detention of a Huawei executive in Canada at Washington's request during the first Trump administration.
The White House and China's State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
Executives at leading Chinese companies in AI and other strategically sensitive industries, such as robotics, are being discouraged from traveling to the US and its allies unless absolutely necessary, the Journal report said.
Executives who choose to travel are instructed to report their plans before leaving and, upon returning, to brief authorities on what they did and whom they met, the report said.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng declined an invitation to attend an AI summit in Paris in February, according to the report. Another founder of a major Chinese AI startup canceled a planned US trip last year following instructions from Beijing, the Journal added.
US and China are locked in a global AI race, with DeepSeek recently launching AI models that it claims rival or surpass US industry leaders like OpenAI and Google, at significantly lower cost.
In February, President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting with some of the biggest names in China's technology sector, urging them to "show their talent" and be confident in the power of China's model and market.