Who is the ‘butcher of Mariupol’ who allegedly ordered hospital bombing

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev has earned the nickname “Butcher of Mariupol” for masterminding the harrowing assault on the Ukrainian metropolis that has diminished it to rubble. 

Ukrainian navy officers declare that Mizintsev orchestrated an identical assault in Syria, leaving the town of Aleppo bomb-shattered. The assault in Mariupol included the bombing of a theater that had marked itself as a shelter with kids – an assault that killed roughly 300 folks looking for refuge on the time. 

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Mizintsev, 59, serves as the pinnacle of the Nationwide Centre for Protection Administration, which Russia established in 2014 to direct future navy operations. 

Right here’s what else you might want to know in regards to the man who sits in one of the vital highly effective seats in Russia. 

SOVIET-MADE

Mizintsev was born through the peak of the Soviet Union’s energy in 1962 in a village some 400 miles exterior of Moscow. 

He swiftly rose via the ranks, learning on the Kiev Increased Mixed Arms Command College earlier than turning into the commander of a recon platoon within the Soviet military in East Germany – the identical area the place KGB agent Vladimir Putin operated.

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Following the autumn of the Soviet Union, Mizintsev deployed to the Caucasus to command a motorized rifle battalion. 

His return to Moscow within the late Nineteen Nineties led to fast promotion, culminating in a submit in 2003 as the pinnacle of operations directorate of the chief of employees, a job that tasked him with navy planning duties. 

He then took management of the Nationwide Centre for Protection Administration, at which level he reportedly coordinated Russia’s involvement within the Syrian civil battle between 2015 and 2016. 

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SYRIAN OPERATIONS

Russia assisted Syrian authorities forces with a sequence of air strikes, hitting Aleppo with assaults that killed round 1,700 civilians. 

Russian forces reportedly used cluster and incendiary bombs and chemical weapons in residential areas, together with hospitals. 

UKRAINE 

Mizintsev has served because the face of the Russian press in statements in regards to the siege of Mariupol. 

In video briefings, he referred to as the Ukrainians “bandits” and “neo-Nazis” and accuses them of partaking in “mass terror.” 

He stands accused of ordering the strikes on a number of civilian infrastructure targets, together with colleges, hospitals and the theater that sheltered greater than 1,000 civilians. 

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties, referred to as on Mizintsev to face battle crime prices on the Hague.