The Kremlin may soon pull Sergei Surovikin out of the cold, if reports in the Russian press are correct. The plan being discussed is to hand the disgraced general a senior role planning attacks on Kyiv. Surovikin is better known to the wider world as the 'Butcher of Aleppo', a nickname earned during the destruction of the Syrian city. He has been in disgrace since the Wagner mutiny, an episode that raised hard questions about where his loyalty lay. Bringing back a commander with that baggage could cost Putin goodwill within parts of his own security hierarchy. If a new push on Kyiv then stalls, the blame for trusting Surovikin would point straight back at the Kremlin leader. His rehabilitation, in other words, could end up working against the man who approved it.