Soldiers sceptical over leadership change
Donetsk region, Ukraine — As Ukraine’s president looks poised to fire the head of his armed forces, some soldiers fighting Russia’s latest onslaught are sceptical but say much depends on who replaces him.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Sunday that he is considering replacing armed forces commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi as part of a broader shake-up of the top brass.
Most Ukrainians see Zaluzhnyi as a hero when they remember the stunning underdog victories against Russia in 2022 outweighing the failure of last year’s counteroffensive.
“I think this dismissal would not be appropriate now, because on the field of battle you do not change commanders,” said a 31year-old antitank unit commander who asked to be introduced by his call sign Tiger.
Tiger’s brigade, the 59th, are fighting on a section of the front in the eastern Donetsk region near Avdiivka, a town built around a vast coking plant that bore the brunt of Russia’s second winter assault.
The soldier, choosing his words carefully and speaking in the basement of a house where he was resting between frontline rotations, said a lot depended on who would replace him.
“The most popular [commanders] are those who are here and who fight alongside the lads, who sit in the trenches,” he said. Whoever was in charge should ensure the arrival of fresh replacement troops and a larger supply of drones — both things that Zaluzhnyi pushed for, he said.
The importance of the identity of the next commander was echoed by 33-year-old company commander Ihor.
“Before you fire someone from their post, especially such an important one, you need to be sure who will replace this person and what their vision is for the future of this situation,” he said.
“If our government wants to change someone, these changes should only make things better and not worse.”
NEGATIVE VIEW
A December 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 72% of Ukrainians would view the dismissal of Zaluzhnyi negatively, with only 2% seeing it positively.
The soldiers who spoke to Reuters were cautious not to express strident opinions in a row that pits their commanderin-chief against a president who heads the armed forces.
But Mykola, a 59-year-old who commands a GRAD rocket launcher truck, said he thought Zaluzhnyi was sucked into a political dispute.
“Everyone thinks we had some successes in 2022 ... but in 2023 not as much.
“But that doesn’t mean that Zaluzhnyi was managing the armed forces badly,” he said.
Long-standing friction between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi over the conduct of the war has come to a head over the issue of mobilisation.
Zelensky has said the military wants to recruit up to 500,000 men in 2024, something a source said the president opposes, though his government has submitted a draft law to parliament tightening up military recruitment.
BURDEN
Soldiers in the Donetsk region, many of whom volunteered not expecting to still be fighting after two years of full-scale war, said they did not want to shoulder the entire burden of the conflict.
“The mobilisation is necessary because we don’t have enough people. The enemy has a great advantage over us in the number of soldiers,” Ihor said.
Tiger estimated that 60%70% of the original 59th brigade were still serving, and said it could not replace all those killed, injured or signed off for other reasons.
Mykola said he would go home when he turned 60 in line with the rules. He said he felt for younger soldiers who did not have that option.
LONG-STANDING FRICTION BETWEEN ZELENSKY AND ZALUZHNYI COMES TO A HEAD ON MOBILISATION