Zelensky sacks top commander in biggest shake-up of the war

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY yesterday dismissed General Valery Zaluzhny as his commander-in-chief in the biggest military leadership shake-up of the war.

The re-organisation came after weeks of speculation that the Ukrainian president was considering the future of his top commander.

Mr Zelensky praised Gen Zaluzhny, 50, who has led Ukraine’s war effort for two years, but insisted “urgent changes” were needed to revitalise the nation’s battle-stricken forces this year.

“Starting today, a new management team will take over the leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Gen Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, would replace the outgoing military leader, the Ukrainian president said.

He continued: “The year 2024 can be successful for Ukraine only if there are effective changes in the basis of our defence, which is the armed forces of Ukraine.”

“A realistic, detailed action plan for the armed forces of Ukraine for 2024 should be on the table. Taking into account the real situation on the battlefield now and the prospects,” he added.

Mr Zelensky has a right to choose who leads his country’s military, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday, pledging to work with Kyiv’s new commander-in-chief. “[Gen Syrsky] is an experienced, successful commander... we will work effectively with Gen Syrsky, we already have,” said Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs at the Pentagon.

It remained unclear whether Gen Zaluzhny, who enjoys huge support among Ukraine’s rank-and-file military and civil society, had resigned or been fired from the position.

“A decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategy,” Gen Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram, alongside a picture of the two men shaking hands and smiling.

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Mr Zelensky’s leading advisers, said the decision had been taken after the “tactics of actions… did not fully ensure proper results last year”.

Mr Zelensky said he had offered the four-star general, dubbed the “iron general” by admirers, an unspecified role to “continue in the team”.

Opinion polling had shown the military chief as outranking the president as the most trusted figure in Ukraine during the war. His standing with the public generated speculation that he could one day challenge Mr Zelensky as a political rival. Mr Zelensky had first attempted to dismiss Gen Zaluzhny on Jan 29, but he refused to resign. Sources last week suggested he could now be made Ukraine’s ambassador to Nato or national security adviser.

Gen Zaluzhny, a career military man, was appointed commander of Ukraine’s general staff in 2021, before the Russian invasion. He has been credited with preparing the initial defences and positioning troops away to safety from the early Russian strikes.

The pair’s relationship had soured because of tactical differences over the Kharkiv counter-offensive in 2022, which Gen Zaluzhny believed had little strategic benefit despite its success, and the bloody defence of Bakhmut. Tensions spilled into public in November when the general described the war as a “stalemate” in an interview with The Economist – a statement instantly derided by Mr Zelensky and his camp.

About the same time, the president’s office removed one of Gen Zaluzhny’s deputies and sacked the head of Ukraine’s medical forces with little explanation. A month later, Mr Zelensky publicly rebuffed the former commander’s plea to mobilise 500,000 new soldiers.

Prof David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University, said: “Generals in war are like managers: often blamed for things out of their control. Zaluzhny seems to be taking the fall for the failure of Ukraine’s fall offensive and Russia’s retaking of the military initiative.”

The move comes at a perilous time for Ukraine, with Joe Biden, the US president, still struggling to garner enough support for a $60 billion (£48billion) aid package for Kyiv.

Yesterday, the US Senate voted to move ahead with a stripped-down bill after Republicans rejected a combined border security and foreign aid deal after their presidential hopeful Donald Trump had rubbished it.

Democrat Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, proposed the “Plan B” to keep funding for Ukraine alive.

The decision to name Gen Syrsky as Zaluzhny’s successor may not be a popular one, with troops holding him responsible for the ultimately fruitless defence of Bakhmut. Thousands of soldiers died attempting to hold on to the ruined city in eastern Ukraine against Wagner mercenaries, with many arguing that Kyiv should have withdrawn earlier.

Gen Syrsky said his approach had blunted the Russian war effort and neutralised the offensive threat of Wagner. One Ukrainian soldier described him as a “butcher”, adding he and his comrades were “all meat now”.

Another source close to the Ukrainian military said “he’s not liked”, but acknowledged Gen Zaluzhny’s position had become untenable after a “failed counter-offensive and zero progress for months”.