The War Between Russia and Ukraine: Latest News – The New York Times

US officials said that while General Surovikin appears to have been released from official detention, it remains unclear whether there are any remaining restrictions on his movement or other restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that he could not comment on whether General Surovikin was under investigation.

General Surovikin was released in the days after Prigozhin died in a plane crash late last month, said the person close to the Russian Defense Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, like American officials, to discuss a sensitive subject.

The source said the general has retained his rank until now and is still technically an officer in the army, but he no longer has any career prospects. Russia’s official news agency reported last month that General Surovikin had been officially removed from the post of commander of the Russian Air Force.

On Monday, General Surovikin appeared for the first time since the June mutiny in a photo posted to social media by a news outlet run by a Russian news personality, Ksenia Sobchak. The general is pictured in civilian clothes, sunglasses, a hat and a button-up shirt, walking outside with his wife in front of an ivy-covered wall. The location was not immediately clear from the photo.

“General Sergey Surovikin is out: alive and well, at home with his family in Moscow,” read a post on the channel on the Telegram messaging app linked to Ms Sobchak.

Books by Alexei A. Venediktov, who headed the liberal broadcaster Echo of Moscow until the Kremlin shut it down last year, revealed late Monday that General Surovikin was at home with his family.

“He is on vacation and at the disposal of the Ministry of Defence,” Mr. Venediktov posted on his Telegram channel.

From October to January, General Surovikin was the top Russian officer in charge of operations in Ukraine. He oversaw the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson and the shift to a defensive strategy, which included building a wall of wide defenses known as the “Surovikin Line” that held back the Ukrainian forces in their counterattack.

Mr. Prigozhin knew General Surovikin because the Wagner fighters had served in Syria with Russian forces when he was the commander-in-chief there. The mercenary leader hailed the general’s appointment last year, calling him a legendary figure and the most capable commander in the Russian army.

But in January, the Kremlin sidelined General Surovikin, appointing the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery V.I. Gerasimov, Commander-in-Chief of Forces in Ukraine. This change marked the beginning of a broader loss of power for Mr. Prigozhin, who soon clashed with General Gerasimov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu, where Wagner’s forces suffered heavy losses while trying to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Those tensions eventually prompted Mr. Prigozhin to launch a short-lived insurrection, which he said was aimed at removing Russia’s defense chiefs, not President Vladimir Putin.

As speculation about General Surovikin’s whereabouts mounted in July, a senior lawmaker who heads the Russian parliament’s defense committee told a reporter that the general was “taking a rest.”

Mr. Prigozhin was killed on August 23, when a private plane carrying him and other Wagner leaders from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver region of Russia. US officials said they suspected an explosion on board caused the plane to crash.

The Kremlin has called Western suggestions that Putin was involved in the event an “absolute lie”.

Valeria Safronova Contributed to reports.