Kyiv: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced his top army general in a major shake-up of the country's war strategy as the war against Russia is set to enter its third year while Kyiv struggles with shortages of ammunition and personnel. Zelenskyy replaced General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who has served as commander-in-chief for two years, with Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi on Thursday.
"The time for such a renewal is now," Zelenskyy said on X while thanking Zaluzhnyi for his service. Zaluzhnyi did not announce he had stepped down but said he accepted that “everyone must change and adapt to new realities” and agreed that there is a “need to change approaches and strategy” in the war.
The statement followed days of speculation spurred by local media reports that Zelenskyy would sack Zaluzhnyi in the most far-reaching shake-up of the top military brass since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, after a failed counteroffensive last year. Zaluzhnyi was highly regarded by his troops and by foreign military officials and there were concerns that his exit would cause disruptions.
Who is Oleksandr Syrskyi?
- Syrski, 58, was born in 1965 in the Soviet Union. He attended Moscow Higher Military Command School and served in the Soviet Artillery Corps. Observers say his style blends the hierarchical nature inherent to Soviet military strategy with NATO principles of operational flexibility.
- He had previously commanded Ukrainian troops fighting a Moscow-backed insurgency in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in 2014, and was given the call sign "Snow leopard". He became head of Ukraine's land forces in 2019.
- He is credited with initially organising the defense of Kyiv in February 2022, when many in Ukraine still rejected Western warnings that a Russian attack seemed imminent. He was later bestowed with the Hero of Ukraine award, the country's highest honor, for his role in repelling Moscow's advance on the capital.
- In September 2022, Syrksi was credited with orchestrating the counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, which was the most significant Ukrainian victory in the war and enabled Kyiv to retake the cities of Kupiansk and Izium from the Russians.
- Syrskyi also led the Bakhmut operation, which was the war's longest and bloodiest and which has been criticized because of the high losses suffered by Ukrainian forces. But the tactic to pin Russian forces in the strategically insignificant salt-mining town also exhausted Russian troops and resources, sapping their ability to forge major breakthroughs elsewhere.
Why was Zaluzhnyi dismissed?
Faced with a shortfall in anticipated supplies of Western weaponry, Ukraine has been digging defenses, while Moscow has put its economy on a war footing to give its military more muscle. Rifts within Ukraine's top leadership burst into the open recently with swirling rumors starting on January 29 that Zaluzhnyi would be dismissed. Zelenskyy's office and the Defense Ministry denied the rumors, but the reports fueled expectations he was on his way out.
Strains had appeared between Zaluzhnyi and Zelenskyy — arguably the two most prominent figures in Ukraine's fight — after the much-anticipated counteroffensive failed to meet its goal of penetrating Russia's deep defenses. Amid signs of war fatigue in the West, Zaluzhnyi described the conflict as being at a “stalemate,” just when Zelenskyy was arguing in foreign capitals that Ukraine's new weaponry had been vital. Zelenskyy rebuked the statement as helping the Russians.
Born into a family of Soviet servicemen, Zaluzhnyi is credited with modernizing the Ukrainian army along NATO lines. He took charge seven months before Russia's full-scale invasion. Widely regarded in the West as an ambitious and astute battlefield commander, he has had a reputation for modesty in Ukraine.
Zaluzhnyi earned broad public support after the successful defense of Kyiv in the early days of the war, followed by a triumphant counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region and the liberation of Kherson. His courage and defiance of Russia's ambitions were renowned, and he became a symbol of resilience and national unity.
(with inputs from agencies)
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