Moscow has appointed General Sergei Sorovikin, the former commander of Russian forces in Syria, as commander of Russian forces in Donbas, southeastern Ukraine.

Sorovikin was charged with war crimes in Syria

Human Rights Watch released a report on Syria in 2020, that Russian generals, among them Sorovikin, may bear the "command responsibility" for violations during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive.

The organization said the repeated attacks by Assad regime forces and Russian forces on civilian infrastructure in the Idlib district "apparently constitute war crimes, and may amount to crimes against humanity".