Ukraine’s new army chief is known as the ‘butcher’. Can he beat Russia?
Al Jazeera
New commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyii, has a strong history of tactical success, but much hinges on US military aid.
The new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi has built a fearsome reputation as a military commander in the war with Russia, but he faces some major challenges, including how to mobilise new forces and combat corruption in the ranks.
Over the past week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired most of his top generals in an attempt to “reset” management of the country’s decimated, undermanned and undersupplied armed forces.
The list of 15 dismissed generals includes the popular commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who has been replaced by Syrskyi – described by some as a “butcher” with little regard for loss of human life. Some heads of combined forces, military reserve, ground and airborne forces, along with some of their deputies and advisers, have survived the cull.
“The first thought is that this is an absolutely unprecedented action,” said Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University, who has been writing detailed analyses of the Russia-Ukraine war since the conflict began in 2022.
“Apparently, it was coordinated with the new commander-in-chief, Syrskyi, who named the people he would want to work with as a team,” Mitrokhin told Al Jazeera.
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