General Oleksandr Syrsky is quickly establishing himself as the new commander of the Ukrainian armed forces. The extreme popularity of his predecessor, General Valery Zalouzhny, certainly earned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a wave of criticism for his decision to change military leader, but much more measured than kyiv could have expected. In these difficult times for soldiers, Ukraine is above all trying to preserve its unity.
The three men took care to appear together on Friday February 9, the day after the presidential decision. Mr. Zelensky presented General Zaluzhny with the title of “Hero of Ukraine”, the country’s highest distinction, for his “outstanding personal merits in protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the country, the general having defined the strategy which made it possible to inflict on Moscow its main defeats during the Russian invasion in 2022. General Syrsky had already received the same distinction for having orchestrated the defense of kyiv.
The president and the fallen commander warmly hugged each other, then the two generals Zaluzhny and Syrsky appeared together, good comrades. During the same ceremony, the title of “Hero of Ukraine” was also awarded by Mr. Zelensky to the head of military intelligence, General Kyrylo Budanov, the second most popular military figure in the country after General Zaluzhny, for a time expected to take command of the army. The poster, smiling and soothing, was thus complete.
General Oleksandr Syrsky, crowned with crucial military victories, but controversial within the ranks of the army for his tactics of holding the fronts at all costs, including at the cost of high human losses, as during the Battle of Bakhmut, then started talking about the future. “The most experienced general in Ukraine”, as President Zelensky presented it, has a reputation for being obsessed with planning. No surprise therefore to see him making it his priority to “plan actions clearly and in detail” of the armed forces, up to ” victory “.
The need for a “technological leap”
The need for the development of new technologies occupies an important place in its program, being “one of the future vectors for building victory in our war of liberation. Only changes and continuous improvement in the means and methods of warfare will allow us to succeed.he wrote on Telegram in his first statement as commander of the armed forces, following in the footsteps of General Zalouzhny, who last year demanded “a technological leap” to get out of “the impasse”. A priority which is in line with the creation, announced this week by Mr. Zelensky, of a specific department dedicated to drones within the armed forces.
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