Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he has removed Valery Zaluzhny from the position of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Oleksandr Sirsky, former commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, was appointed to that position.
Zelensky announced the decision on the dismissal a few days after indications appeared in the Ukrainian public that the Ukrainian president is considering the dismissal of a military official - whom many citizens consider a national hero of resistance to the Russian aggression launched in February 2022.
In a post on the Facebook social network, Zelensky said he met and spoke with Zaluzhny.
"We considered what kind of reconstruction the Armed Forces of Ukraine need. As well as who might make up their new leadership. It is time for this kind of renewal. I suggested to General Zaluลพno that he stay with our team", said Zelenski.
The former commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that he had an important conversation with President Zelensky and that it was decided to change the strategy and tactics on the battlefield.
"The challenges and tasks of 2022 are different from those of 2024. Everything has to change and adapt to the new reality. Let's win together," announced Zaluzni.
The decision to change the top of the Ukrainian army comes on the eve of the two-year anniversary of Russian aggression in a war that claimed significant casualties and destroyed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The United States and the Western world assured Ukraine that they would help her in the war with Russia as long as necessary. However, the bailout bill is currently blocked in the US Congress, and the available funds have been used up.
Also, despite great expectations from the Ukrainian counter-offensive launched in June 2023, efforts to force Russian forces to withdraw from parts of the occupied Ukrainian territory did not bear fruit.
These are the circumstances on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Russian aggression against Ukraine - which is not giving up on that offensive military venture.
Who is Oleksandr Syrsky?
Sirsky, writes Reuters, is one of the key figures in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Oleksandr Sirsky led the defense of Kyiv at the start of the 2022 war. He was the "master" of the Krajina surprise and the successful counterattack in Kharkiv last summer.
Sirski was born in July 1965 in the Vladimir region of Russia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He has been living in Ukraine since the eighties of the last century.
Like many people his age in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he studied in Moscow - at the Higher Military Command School - among peers who have since become Russian commanders.
He graduated in 1986 and served five years in the Soviet Artillery Corps. Some military analysts believe his battlefield tactics reflect his Soviet training.
Sirsky became the head of the Ukrainian ground forces in 2019. He previously commanded Ukrainian troops fighting a Moscow-backed insurgency in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that began in 2014 and was given the nom de guerre "Snow Leopard".
Sirski oversaw some of Ukraine's biggest victories during the conflict.
He led the successful defense of the capital city of Kyiv in the first months of the war, and in April 2022 he was declared a Hero of Ukraine, which is the country's highest honor.
In July 2022, Sirsky planned and executed a lightning counter-offensive that pushed Russian troops away from the city of Kharkiv and retook swaths of the country in the east and southeast.
