Overview

Sergei Fedorovich Rudskoy was born on October 2, 1960, in Nikolaev, in what was then the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union. He is the head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (GOU) of the Russian Armed Forces and the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff. He holds the rank of colonel general, attained in 2017.

Born to a father with a distinguished military career, Rudskoy graduated from the Minsk Suvorov Military School in 1977 and the Moscow Red Banner Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1981. His combat experience is extensive, particularly in the North Caucasus region, where he served from 1994 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2009. During this time, he commanded the 255th Guards Motorized Rifle Stalingrad–Korsun Regiment of the 20th Guards Motorized Rifle Division.

In 2015, Rudskoy was appointed to his current leadership role within the General Staff. In this capacity, he has been instrumental in coordinating Russian forces in Syria against ISIS and, more recently, in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His involvement with the Wagner Group became more apparent through a February 2018 letter from Yevgeny Prigozhin’s employees to Rudskoy, advocating for increased Russian engagement in Africa and outlining potential geostrategic goals. Furthermore, internal Wagner Group documents from July 2020 reveal Prigozhin’s team drafting an urgent letter to Rudskoy regarding the arrest of 33 Wagner members in Minsk, suggesting a closer relationship than previously known.

Rudskoy’s role in these conflicts and his connections to the Wagner Group have drawn international attention, resulting in sanctions from the European Union, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Ukraine. These sanctions cite his responsibility for actions undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence. Despite his high-profile position and significant involvement with both official and unofficial military operations, Rudskoy maintains a relatively low public profile, though he is a member of the editorial board of the journal Military Thought.