Sirski, the discreet hero of the eastern offensive

If Colonel-General Olexander Sirski is the subject, the day falls quickly the word “genius”. Domestic and foreign media are hailing the commander of the Ukrainian land forces as the architect of the successful counter-offensive in eastern Ukraine. He is said to have developed and implemented the idea for the surprising advance on the city of Kupjansk. The attack forced the Russians, completely taken by surprise, into a partially chaotic retreat. The Ukrainians regained more territory in a matter of days than Moscow had captured in months of fighting.

Since then he has been considered a hero in Ukraine, and the Ministry of Defense described Sirski as one of the “atlases” who carried the country’s military fate on their shoulders: “The Oscar of war glory is theirs.” It was Sirski who had his country’s flag hoisted over Balaklija on September 10th. “Today we liberate the first big city in our offensive,” the commander announced to his soldiers. “She won’t be the last.” On September 14 he also received President Zelensky during his surprise visit to Izyum.

Russian-born and military reformer

The 57-year-old has a personal and military biography that is extremely remarkable. It starts with the fact that Sirski was born in Russia and, according to media reports, only speaks Ukrainian with an accent to this day. Having joined the army in Soviet times, he opted for a career in the Ukrainian armed forces after independence. He commanded two brigades before assuming senior positions in the General Staff from the noughties.

Shortly before the Maidan revolution, Sirski, as deputy commander-in-chief, also became responsible for relations with NATO. Fluent in English, he is considered one of the driving forces behind the modernization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their alignment with Alliance standards. For the reformers around the chief of staff, Valeri Zalushni, this meant turning away from the stereotyped thinking of the Soviet army and towards creative approaches. Improving education was a priority. “It’s the human factor that plays the main role,” Sirski once summed up his credo.

After the annexation of Crimea and the Russian aggression in Donbass, he commanded the Ukrainian military operation in the east for years. Sirski received a high medal for coordinating the withdrawal from Debaltseve in 2015, and in 2019 Selenski appointed him army commander. After the invasion on February 24, 2022, the officer assumed responsibility for the defense of the capital.

He didn’t believe that Moscow was really attacking the capital, the otherwise media-shy officer, about whose private life little is known, recently told the “Washington Post”. But as a member of the military, he had to take precautions, “regardless of what I believed or didn’t believe”. Sirski had two lines of defense built to keep the Russians at a distance from downtown. Sirski also ordered the removal of helicopters and jets from major bases, which he identified as the most likely targets.

Since he initially only had weak forces and hardly any heavy weapons to defend Kiev, Sirski had artillery pieces brought to the front from military training centers, among other things. He also did not hesitate to work with military intelligence to demolish a dam and flood a large area in mid-March to slow the enemy’s advance. In the weeks that followed, the Russians had to give up their goal of capturing Kiev. On April 5, Sirski was named a “Hero of Ukraine” for his services.

The politics of hero worship

The list of his achievements combined with his leading role in the current offensive leaves no doubt about Olexander Sirski’s qualities as a commander. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how much he is now publicly celebrated for it. While stories of clashes between Ukraine’s political and military leaders are largely the product of Russian propaganda, mission-conscious President Zelensky has so far jealously guarded lest the high command steal the limelight from him. However, both Saluschni and Sirski completely lack Zelenski’s charisma. In their public appearances, the military intellectuals appear wooden. As successful strategists, however, they enjoy a high reputation and the loyalty of their soldiers.

The Ukrainian journalists, who always gleefully track down intrigues and conspiracies in a clandestine political elite, sense a political strategy behind the establishment of Sirski as the new national hero. They note that it was a notorious “political technologist” who not only “revealed” the commander’s role as the “mastermind” of the offensive, but also immediately spoke of resistance in the general staff that Sirski had overcome. That could actually only mean Saluschni.

According to the persistent rumor, Selenski wants to get rid of the chief of staff and replace him with Sirski, because he suspects him of political ambitions. But in order not to anger the western partners, Zalushni would be promoted to defense minister. The speculation was so audible that the President publicly denied it at the end of August: “There is a team that exists. And this works.”

While it seems plausible that a wartime civilian politician would worry about military leadership becoming too popular, the theories seem speculative. In this way, Zelensky left the military leadership plenty of scope to make strategic rather than political decisions. An exception was the decision, probably pushed through by his office, in the summer to send supplies to the already lost city of Severodonetsk. There were very few dismissals of senior officers. It would be an extremely unwise decision to force this at a time when the army is riding a wave of success. Instead, the military and state leaders have demonstratively marked unity through joint meetings in recent weeks.

«Masterful operation» of a collective

However, with a few exceptions, who makes which decisions in the military leadership and what specific role the Western partners play in this remains a state secret. The media therefore make do with anonymous sources and speculation. The image of the “brilliant strategist” Sirski can also change again quickly. A representative of the military intelligence service said a few days ago that it had already been clear in the spring that the section of the front that had now been successfully conquered was a good target. “We knew that Balaklija is Russia’s weak point.”

However, some voices have also come to the conclusion that Ukrainians should keep the focus on the collective effort in the defensive war, rather than discussing the role of individual heroes. Yuri Butuzov, the editor-in-chief of the website Zensor.net, calls the attack on Balakliya as plausible as it is vague a “collective decision” by the high command. He does not hide his pride in the success: “It was a masterful operation.”