- Russia has appointed General Alexander Dvornikov to lead its invasion of Ukraine.
- Dvornikov was widely dubbed the “butcher of Syria” and was reported to target civilians in conflicts.
- Syrians have scrambled to help Ukrainians deal with the atrocities that may be to come.
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Syrians are helping Ukrainians direct Russian aggression, especially after reports that General Alexander Dvornikov has been appointed as the new commander of the Russian military.
Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis focusing on Ukraine and Russia, told Insider that Syrians who witnessed the atrocities and war crimes committed in Ukraine supported Ukrainian organizations after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Mouaz from the Syrian Emergency Task Force contacted me a few weeks ago and said that the Syrians were watching the images from Ukraine and were so desperate. They felt this was a repeat of what happened to us. So they wanted to find a way to help Ukrainians,” Lautman said.
A coalition called Syria-Ukraine Network was formed between Syrian and Ukrainian organizations. Lautman connects Syrian groups ranging from war crimes experts to the White Helmets to Ukrainian organizations on the ground in Ukraine so Syrians can share advice and best practices on how to deal with civilian attacks.
“That kind of coalition came together just because the Syrians saw what’s happening in Ukraine and they said, ‘My God, we have to help or at least do what we can because we’ve been through this,'” she said.
Russia backed Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria by sending in troops in 2015, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is using the same playbook from Syria in Ukraine. Dvornikov played a significant role in the Russian bombing of Syria. He has been dubbed the “butcher of Syria” and has targeted civilians in the past.
The announcement of Dvornikov’s appointment came after a rocket attack on a Kramatorsk train station on Friday that killed 50 people, including five children. The attack was just one of many attacks on civilians over the course of the war.
Lautman said Syrians were concerned about Dvornikov’s leadership in the war.
“We see how similar the two situations are because Putin has decimated cities in Syria. What he did, the atrocities committed under that general [Dvornikov]. This general is known for his role specifically in targeting civilians,” she said. “The chemical attacks in Syria and the large amount of mass graves uncovered in Syria – Russia had a lot to do with it and now we see the general tasked with overseeing this. And one of his first tests was to launch a rocket attack at the train station, targeting refugees — Ukrainians waiting for the trains to depart.”
She added that a doctor from the Syrian American Medical Association, which helped build underground hospitals in Syria to treat patients wounded or subjected to chemical attacks, traveled to Ukraine last week to help in hospitals.
“It just shows you the strength of the Syrians because they saw the atrocities and the first instinct was, how can we help instead of saying, ‘Oh my God, are we really going through the same thing again?'” Lautman said.
Russia has repeatedly denied and launched disinformation campaigns against allegations of targeting hospitals and civilian areas in Syria. In Ukraine, too, Russia has denied allegations of war crimes and once described the massacre in the city of Bucha as a “Ukrainian hoax”.
Lautman said Russia must be held accountable and that if the world had paid attention to what is happening in Syria, the crisis in Ukraine would have been prevented.
“Russia committed the most egregious atrocities in Syria and somehow the media and governments ignored it,” she said.
She added: “That could have been avoided. I mean, frankly, if Russia had been taken care of in 2008 when they invaded Georgia, we wouldn’t have had Syria, Ukraine, and Ukraine back.”
However, she said that both Ukrainians and Syrians hope that by working together and drawing the world’s attention to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they can get justice for both countries.