For many years, Colonel-General Mikhail Mezintsev remained an enigmatic figure in the Russian military leadership. But over the past week, he has become known as the “Butcher of Mariupol”.
Ukrainian officials and activists accused Mezintsev of planning and carrying out the siege of the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which, according to the mayor, resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and the leveling of apartment buildings.
Last week, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, Oleksandra Matveychuk, tweeted a photo of the 59-year-old general, a man with short gray hair and pale blue eyes, saying: “This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He leads the siege of Mariupol. … He has great experience destroying cities. in Syria”.
Remember him. This is Mikhail Mizintsev. He is leading the siege of Mariupol. It was he who ordered the bombing of a children’s hospital, the drama theatre etc. He has huge experience of destroying cities in Syria. We’ll take care of the meeting him in the Hague#RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/9mWzoCnofl
— Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) March 23, 2022
And last Thursday, Britain imposed sanctions on Mezintsev, who runs the Russian National Center for Defense Management, accusing him of “responsibility for planning and carrying out the siege and bombing of the city of Mariupol, among other major Russian military operations against Ukraine.”
The British Foreign Office said in a statement that the Russian military officer had dubbed him the “Butcher of Mariupol”.
But despite his recent popularity, the Washington Post says, some Russia watchers have been surprised by Mizintsev’s distinction. Experts say that despite his years in the army, he did not enjoy a good reputation.
“I honestly don’t understand all of this,” says Mark Galeotti, professor emeritus of Russian armed forces at University College London. “I don’t think he has any operational command responsibility here, and he doesn’t have any particular reputation as a tough officer or anything like that.”
Jeffrey Edmonds, a senior analyst at the CNA Research Center in Washington, says he knows little about Mizintsev.
While the Russian expert at the British think tank Chatham House, Ker Giles, said that Mizintsev is a prominent figure, but he has spent most of the past decades in jobs that were “administrative such as managing headquarters and coordination centers.”
“So he is different from other prominent Russian leaders who often have practical experience on the ground in Syria,” he added.
While the United States did not impose sanctions on Mizintsev. The British Foreign Office said he was “known for using abhorrent tactics, including bombing civilian centers in both Aleppo in 2015-16 and now in Mariupol, where atrocities are being committed against the Ukrainian people”.
And the TASS news agency had quoted Mizintsev that the Russian Defense Ministry would open a humanitarian corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhia on Friday, at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Putin.