A brutal cabal of bloodthirsty generals is running VLADIMIR Putin’s botched but vicious invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s top commanders face a slew of charges, including deliberately running down and killing protesters with tanks and shelling civilians indiscriminately.

As Putin’s planned quick invasion of Ukraine appears to be backfiring, the Russian army has resorted to increasingly heinous tactics.

Almost 90 percent of Mariupol’s southern city has been damaged or destroyed, and numerous atrocities have been reported, including the shelling of a theatre, which killed 300 people, and the bombing of a maternity hospital.

These atrocities, however, should come as no surprise to those who have been following Putin’s thugs’ actions in recent years.

For decades, Putin’s top generals have been accused of waging savagery around the world, from the bloody civil war in Syria to the brutal annexation of Crimea and even the murder of their own people.

It comes after the so-called “Butcher of Mariupol,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, was caught on camera appearing to call for the mutilation of his own soldier after he wore his uniform incorrectly.

In a chilling intercepted phone call, Mizintsev appeared to call for the soldier’s “face to be messed up,” and urged others to beat him with a bottle for the error.

Ukraine claims that Putin’s general was responsible for both the bombing of a maternity hospital in the city and the shelling of a theatre that was being used as a bomb shelter by up to 1,000 people.

However, he is just one of many Russian generals who have been accused of heinous crimes in recent years.

It comes after the so-called “Butcher of Mariupol,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, was caught on camera appearing to call for the mutilation of his own soldier after he was caught wearing his uniform incorrectly.

Mizintsev appeared to call for the soldier’s “face to be messed up” and urged others to beat him with a bottle for the error in a chilling intercepted phone call.

Ukraine claims Putin’s general was responsible for the bombing of a maternity hospital in the city as well as the shelling of a theatre that was being used as a bomb shelter by up to 1,000 people.

He is, however, just one of many Russian generals accused of heinous crimes in recent years.

Both parties denied any involvement in the savagery, which killed between 281 and 1,729 people, many of whom were children.

These are Putin’s ruthless generals.

GEN SERGEI SHOIGU

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, played a critical role in Russia’s lethal involvement in Syria and the previous invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

He was appointed Minister of Defence in 2012, and he was directly involved in Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine two years later.

Ukraine opened a criminal case against Shoigu in July 2014, accusing him of forming illegal militias in eastern Ukraine.

These military groups fought against the Ukrainian army and were involved in the July 17, 2014, downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.

In September 2015, sanctions were imposed against him.

Shoigu later led Russia’s bloody military operation in Syria, assisting dictator Bashar al-Assad.

In Syria, Russia’s army is accused of committing numerous war crimes, including the use of cluster munitions, deliberately targeting civilians and rescue workers, and indiscriminate airstrikes.

GEN VALERY GERASIMOV

Valery Gerasimov has been the Russian army’s Chief of General Staff since 2012, as well as a member of the Russian Security Council.

As the author of the “Gerasimov Doctrine,” he is accused of ushering in a new type of armed conflict known as “hybrid warfare.”

He advocated for increased use of “asymmetric actions” such as “special operations forces” and “internal opposition,” as well as propaganda, to destabilise the enemy and create a state of “permanent conflict” in it.

These techniques would first be demonstrated in Ukraine in 2014, when Gerasimov was organising and developing plans for Russia’s invasion of Crimea and Donbas.

As a result, he was sanctioned by the European Union, the United States, and Canada.

According to the investigative website Bellingcat, Gerasimov was among those responsible for transporting the Buk air defence system to the Donbas and launching the missile that shot down MH17.

Ukraine dubbed him the “main mastermind” of the Donbas conflict in 2014, and the then-head of the country’s Investigative Department, Grigory Ostafiychuk, claimed he was personally present during the bloody Ilovaisk battle that August.

Russian forces surrounded the city in eastern Ukraine for four weeks, attacking soldiers after failing to honour an agreement to allow Ukrainian troops to withdraw.

The Ukrainian government called the events a “massacre,” and one Ukrainian soldier described it as “a real meat grinder.”

Following the battle, a court in Kyiv ordered the arrest of Gerasimov and ten other high-ranking Russian soldiers.

Gerasimov was also in charge of Russia’s military operation in Syria, which began in September 2015.

According to Amnesty International, Russian planes deliberately attacked civilians and rescuers in February 2016.

According to Airwars, which tracks reports of civilian casualties, Russia launched 39,000 airstrikes on Syria during the conflict.

By the end of 2018, the total civilian death toll in Syria as a result of Russian airstrikes had risen to between 2,730 and 3,866, with 690 to 844 children among those killed.

COL-GEN SERGEI RUDSKOI

Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoy is the first deputy chief of general staff of the armed forces and the head of the general staff’s main operations directorate.

According to Human Rights Watch, Rudskoi may be in command of Syria’s 2019-2020 Idlib offensive.

On July 22, 2019, a Russian attack targeted a market in Marat al Numan. Two buildings were destroyed by a second blast.

According to the UN, at least two Russian fixed-wing aircraft left the nearby Hmemim airbase just before the attack.

According to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the attack killed at least 43 civilians, including three girls and one boy, and injured at least 109, including 18 children and 15 women.

According to the report, “the majority of the victims suffered severe injuries, with some being brought to the hospital decapitated, badly burned, or without limbs.”

Rudskoy stated on July 29, 2019, that Russian aircraft were not flying in the area and that the market was “completely intact and functioning as usual.”

Rudskoy had previously denied Russian responsibility for the al-Sakhour hospital bombing.

COL-GEN SERGEI SUROVKIN

Colonel-General Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Syria between March and April 2019, was in charge of bombing Ukrainian cities during the Russian invasion.

Surovkin personally led an armoured column in Moscow that ran down peaceful protesters, killing three, during an attempted coup against the new government to save the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1995, he was found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm and sentenced to eight years in prison, but he was released after only one year.

Surovkin was promoted to General of the Army last year, with many speculating that he could eventually succeed Gerasimov.

COL-GEN ANDREI SERDYUKOV

Col Gen Andrei Nikolaevich Serdyukov led Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He was commander of Russian forces in Syria from April 2019 to September 2019.

In August 2015, he commanded Russian troops in the Donbas under the code name “Sedov.”

He was appointed commander of the Russian Airborne Troops in October 2016, and commanded Russia’s armed forces in Syria from April to September 2019.

LT-GEN ALEKSANDR CHAIKO

Between September 2019 and September 2020, Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Chaiko led Russia’s forces in Syria.

In January 2020, he briefed President Putin on the country’s offensive and was photographed in Damascus with Putin, Assad, and General Shoigu.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have all condemned Russia’s actions in Syria.

Former US ambassador to Bahrain William Roebuck claims that Russia’s intervention in Syria paved the way for its current conflict in Ukraine.

He went on to say that hardline dictators in the Middle East and elsewhere regard Putin’s strategy in Syria as “brutal but effective and reliable.”

According to Roebuck, Russia’s intervention in Syria “helped usher in this new, Russia-centered world order that privileges disorder, disruption, disinformation, and the use of military force and diplomatic muscle to intimidate and silence opponents.”