MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky believes there was good reason for dismissing his predecessor Valery Zaluzhny.
"The military has one job: we don't question orders, we carry them out. So if the country’s president, the supreme commander-in-chief [Vladimir Zelensky] had reasons for such a reshuffle, especially during the active phase of the war, it means that these reasons were compelling," he said in an interview with Ukrinform, commenting on Zaluzhny's dismissal.
Syrsky added that he worked with Zaluzhny "shoulder to shoulder in the most difficult times." "We worked as a team. I wish him luck in his new and very demanding position," he added. Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Zelensky agreed to appoint Zaluzhny the country’s ambassador to the UK.
Meanwhile, when asked how the situation on the battlefield has changed after his appointment, Syrsky said that "it is not only on the commander-in-chief that things depend." "The success of combat operations depends on officers, sergeants, soldiers in the trenches and fortifications," he added.
On February 8, Zelensky dismissed Zaluzhny from the post of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, saying that stagnation on the front and the need to "reset the generalship" led him to make the decision. At the time, Ukrainian media wrote that Zaluzhny was the president's main rival in the potential presidential election, if it were to take place. After the commander-in-chief's dismissal, the opposition criticized Zelensky's decision and accused him of eliminating political rivals. According to a March 5 opinion poll, Zaluzhny would have won 41% of the vote to Zelensky's 23.7% in the first round of the presidential election, and 67.5% to Zelensky's 32.5% in the second round.
Syrsky was immediately appointed to replace Zaluzhny. That said, Politico reported that the new commander-in-chief is extremely unpopular among the military, who call him a butcher and "General200" for his tendency to risk the lives of his soldiers. In particular, he is blamed for the failures at Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name: Bakhmut) and the resulting heavy casualties. Syrsky himself admitted after his appointment that the Ukrainian armed forces has been on the defensive since the fall of 2023, and Kiev is facing a difficult situation on the battlefield.