Ukraine war: as Kyiv appoints new army chief, huge problems remain in its fight with Russia
- Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi replaced General Valerii Zaluzhnyi with the war against Russia set to enter its third year
- Despite the change in leadership, Ukraine is dealing with a shortage of manpower, and the inadequate supply of Western weapons to take on Russia
Ukraine’s new military chief signalled on Friday that he wants to build new momentum, saying his immediate goals are to improve troop rotation at the front lines and harness the power of new technology, at a time when Kyiv’s forces are largely on the defensive in the war with Russia.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who previously was the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, spoke a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky put him in charge of the battlefield campaign with the war poised to enter its third year. He replaced the broadly popular General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“New tasks are on the agenda,” Syrskyi said on his Telegram channel.
Syrskyi emphasised the need for “maintaining a balance between the fulfilment of combat tasks and the restoration of units with the intensification of training,” in an apparent reference to the need to rotate troops exhausted by nearly two years of fighting.
He also stressed the importance of “new technical solutions and the scaling of successful experience, such as the use of unmanned systems and modern electronic warfare means.”