{"id":15282,"date":"2024-02-09T00:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T00:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/zelensky-fires-ukraines-military-chief-in-major-shakeup-nearly-two-years-into-war\/"},"modified":"2024-02-09T00:46:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T00:46:10","slug":"zelensky-fires-ukraines-military-chief-in-major-shakeup-nearly-two-years-into-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/zelensky-fires-ukraines-military-chief-in-major-shakeup-nearly-two-years-into-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky fires Ukraine\u2019s military chief in major shakeup nearly two years into war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the dismissal of Ukraine\u2019s top commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in the biggest military shakeup since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion almost two years ago. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s move follows tensions between Zelensky and his hugely popular military chief after the failure of Ukraine\u2019s much-vaunted counteroffensive, and with Ukraine facing a\u00a0renewed Russian onslaught, manpower and\u00a0ammunition shortages, and\u00a0US aid stalled in Congress. <\/p>\n

In a Telegram post sent shortly before the formal announcement, Zelensky said he held a meeting with Zaluzhnyi, and \u201cdiscussed what kind of renewal the Armed Forces of Ukraine need.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe time for such a renewal is now,\u201d Zelensky wrote. <\/p>\n

Zaluzhnyi\u2019s replacement will be Oleksandr Syrskyi, who since 2019 has served as the Commander of Ukrainian Land Forces. <\/p>\n

Zaluzhnyi wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday that \u201cthe tasks of 2022 are different from those of 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, everyone must change and adapt to the new realities as well. [We] have just met with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It was an important and serious conversation. It was decided that we need to change our approaches and strategy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zaluzhnyi \u2013 who had been appointed army chief by Zelensky in July 2021 \u2013 was offered a new position by the president, which he turned down, according to one of the sources. It remains unclear whether Zaluzhnyi has decided to remain involved with the military in some capacity. <\/p>\n

Differences between the two men had been simmering for many months but appeared to grow wider towards the end of last year,\u00a0after Zaluzhnyi said the war had reached a\u00a0stalemate\u00a0in a long essay and interview in\u00a0The Economist\u00a0magazine in November. <\/p>\n

Writing after Ukraine\u2019s counteroffensive was mostly rebuffed by heavily fortified Russian defenses, he warned that without a great technological leap forward \u201cthere will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,\u201d but instead an equilibrium of devastating losses and destruction. <\/p>\n

His remarks drew immediate criticism from Zelensky\u2019s office, which said\u00a0such commentary about the war only benefitted Russia. <\/p>\n

More recently, the two leaders clashed over whether Ukraine needed a mass mobilization effort. The army chief had suggested up to half a million draftees were required, which Zelensky resisted. <\/p>\n

The president told a press conference in December mobilization was a \u2018highly sensitive\u2019 issue and that he wanted to hear more arguments in favor before he felt fully ready to back the move. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very serious number,\u201d Zelensky said. \u201cIt is a question about people, about justice, about defense capabilities. It is also a financial question.\u201d <\/p>\n

A political gamble for Zelensky<\/h2>\n

When Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, many of Ukraine\u2019s allies feared Kyiv would fall in just a few days and the rest of the country within weeks. But Ukraine\u2019s troops, under Zaluzhnyi\u2019s direction, were able to drive Moscow\u2019s forces from the capital and later in the year managed to reclaim large parts of the southern and eastern territories occupied by Russia in the early weeks of the war. <\/p>\n

Ukraine had hoped to drive Moscow\u2019s forces back further in 2023 but battlefield success proved elusive. <\/p>\n

\ufeffLaunched last June, Ukraine\u2019s\u00a0counteroffensive\u00a0in particular aimed to push south towards the Sea of Azov, splitting Russia\u2019s forces in two and cutting its land bridge to Crimea. <\/p>\n

But Ukraine\u2019s gains were modest. Its forces attempted to advance from Orikhiv towards Tokmak, but only made it as far as Robotyne, a little over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south. Russia still occupies around a fifth of Ukraine\u2019s territory. <\/p>\n

Since then, Ukraine has been put back on a defensive\u00a0footing by a\u00a0flurry of Russian offensives\u00a0along much of the frontlines, with intense fighting reported in northeastern Kharkiv region and in Zaporizhzhia in the south. Russia has also renewed its\u00a0aerial assaults\u00a0on cities across the country, and Ukraine has warned that its air defenses risk being\u00a0overwhelmed. <\/p>\n

Zaluzhnyi\u2019s firing is a political gamble for Zelensky.\u00a0Despite the failure of Ukraine\u2019s counteroffensive,\u00a0the now-former military chief\u00a0remains one of the most popular leaders in the country. A poll by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology found 88% of Ukrainians supported the general. Zelensky\u2019s approval rating, though also high, was markedly lower at 62%. <\/p>\n

Analysts have long\u00a0speculated\u00a0about whether Zaluzhnyi could one day emerge as a political rival to Zelensky in future elections, although the general has shown scant political ambition so far. <\/p>\n

At the same time, Zaluzhnyi warned Ukraine was now having to \u201ccontend with a reduction in military support from key allies\u201d as they have become ensnarled by their own political tensions and distracted by conflicts elsewhere. <\/p>\n

He said the best way for Ukraine\u2019s army to avoid being drawn into a \u201cpositional war,\u201d in which fighting is conducted along permanent and fortified frontlines, is for Ukraine to \u201cmaster\u201d unmanned weapons systems \u2013 or drones \u2013 which Zaluzhnyi called the \u201ccentral driver of this war.\u201d <\/p>\n

He will now be replaced by the 59-year-old Syrskyi, who began his soldiering career during the last years of the Soviet Union, training in Moscow. <\/p>\n

With Ukraine\u2019s independence in 1991, he rose through the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces becoming a Major General in 2009. He played a prominent role in Ukraine\u2019s fight against Russia\u2019s invaders in the eastern Donbas region in 2014 and 2015. <\/p>\n

Two years later he became the commander of all Ukrainian forces involved in the Anti-Terrorist Operation, as the conflict with Russia in eastern Ukraine became known. <\/p>\n

Following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Syrskyi led the defense of Kyiv, and then later that year commanded the successful counteroffensive in the region of Kharkiv, which saw Russian forces driven out of hundreds of settlements. <\/p>\n

Another, a frontline commander, also serving in Ukraine\u2019s east, was more critical of the appointment. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the dismissal of Ukraine\u2019s top commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in the biggest military shakeup since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion almost two years ago. The president\u2019s move follows tensions between Zelensky and his hugely popular military chief after the failure of Ukraine\u2019s much-vaunted counteroffensive, and with Ukraine facing a\u00a0renewed <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}