Moscow, Oct 11 (TIWN) Sergei Surovikin, the new unified Russian battlefield commander in Ukraine, has been described as "absolutely ruthless, with little regard for human life" and has also brought his violent Syria playbook closer to home, a media report said.

On Monday morning, just two days after being appointed as the first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, Surovikin ordered the launch of flurry of missiles against civilian targets across Ukraine, which included a major road junction next to a university and a children's playground, said The Guardian report.  Surovikin's "defending" of Moscow's interests in Syria involved dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure, according to a 2020 Human Rights Watch report, which said Russian forces under his command struck Syrian "homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and markets -- the places where people live, work, and study".  "I am not surprised to see what happened this morning in Kiev. Surovikin is absolutely ruthless, with little regard for human life," a former defence ministry official, who has worked with Surovikin, told The Guardian.