Butcher of Mariupol repeats Aleppo destruction

It’s no coincidence Mariupol’s bomb-hit landscape resembles Aleppo, a city reduced to rubble five years ago. Russia’s ‘Butcher’ has returned to the tactics he honed in Syria.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev is said to be responsible for much of the destruction and death in Mariupol. Picture: Getty Images

Mariupol’s wasted landscape of bomb-shattered buildings is reminiscent of Aleppo, the Syrian city reduced to rubble five years ago.

This is no coincidence. According to Ukrainian military officials, both bombardments were co-ordinated by the same commander, a man they have dubbed the ­Butcher of Mariupol.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, is head of the National ­Centre for Defence Management, a command structure set up in 2014 to direct Russia’s military ­operations.

After weeks of siege, during which 80 per cent of Mariupol’s infrastructure is thought to have been destroyed, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odessa’s military headquarters, laid responsibility for the indiscriminate onslaught on Mizintsev, 59.

This Maxar satellite image taken on March 19 shows burning apartment buildings in northeastern Mariupol. Picture: AFP/Maxar Technologies

“It was he who ordered the bombing of the maternity hospital, the children’s hospital, the drama theatre, the houses of civilians,” Bratchuk said. “It is he who is ­destroying Mariupol, as he used to destroy Syrian cities.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties, called on Mizintsev to face war crime charges at The Hague. “Remember him. This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol,” she said.

Although hitherto not a well-known figure in the Russian military, Mizintsev has developed a reputation for brutality during this conflict. In a phone call intercepted and published by the Ukrainian security services this week, the commander appeared to call for a junior officer to have his ears cut off as punishment for not wearing the correct uniform.

“Look at that scum standing there, frowning with his bovine eyes, showing me his unhappy face, his stinking mug,” Mizintsev can be heard spitting.

“Why is he still serving? And why should I have to waste my time with your scum? If you’re the head of a unit, then step up to the plate.

“Why has his face not been messed up? Why has his ear not been cut off? Why is he not limping by now?”

Between 100,000 and 200,000 people are trapped in Mariupol – normally home to 400,000 – without access to food, water, power or heat.

People help an elderly woman who fled Mariupol this week. Picture: AFP

An agreement was reached on Thursday to establish seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukrainian towns and cities, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Each side has blamed the other for the repeated failure to agree on arrangements to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, control of which would help Russia secure a land corridor to the Crimea peninsula, which it seized in 2014. On Thursday the Ukrainian authorities accused the invaders of forcibly transporting 15,000 civilians to Russia.

Mizintsev has been the face of the Russian propaganda machine in its statements on the siege of Mariupol.

Delivering video briefings, published by state broadcasters, Mizintsev said that Ukrainian “bandits”, “neo-Nazis” and nationalists had engaged in “mass terror” and gone on a killing spree in the city.

A Syrian rebel runs across a heavily damaged street to dodge sniper fire during clashes with government forces in Aleppo. Picture: AFP

He also claimed that Russia was not using heavy weaponry against Mariupol.

As head of the National Centre for Defence Management, Mizintsev is believed to have co-ordinated Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war from September 2015. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has estimated that Russian airstrikes killed at least 1700 civilians, including 200 children.

Dr Mark Galeotti, an expert in Russian defence at the Royal United Services Institute, described the National Centre for Defence Management as a high-level “situation room” for military operations.

However, he questioned how much authority rested with Mizintsev. “One of the big quandaries about the war is who is actually making operational decisions,” Galeotti said. “Ultimately, of course, it is Putin, but there doesn’t seem to be one single military commander.”

A boy plays on the gun of a destroyed Syrian army tank north of the restive city of Aleppo. Picture: AFP

The Times