Zelensky sacks Ukraine's top army commander after days of protests
Zelensky sacks Ukraine's top army commander after days of protests - Published Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the country's army...
Key points
- Zelensky sacks Ukraine's top army commander after days of protests - Published Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the country's army commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
- His dismissal comes just days after the removal of popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov - a move that triggered street protests across the country.
- Syrskyi, 60, is seen by many in Ukraine as a Soviet-school commander reluctant to implement radical changes in the army.
- In a video post on social media late on Tuesday, Zelensky thanked Syrskyi for his military campaigns, including his role in successfully defending the capital Kyiv during the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
What happened
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Zelensky sacks Ukraine's top army commander after days of protests - Published Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the country's army commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi. His dismissal comes just days after the removal of popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov - a move that triggered street protests across the country. Syrskyi, 60, is seen by many in Ukraine as a Soviet-school commander reluctant to implement radical changes in the army. In a video post on social media late on Tuesday, Zelensky thanked Syrskyi for his military campaigns, including his role in successfully defending the capital Kyiv during the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Fedorov also revealed that he had called Syrskyi to thank him for the defence of the Kyiv region and other "historic battles". "If I offended anyone, Mykhailo Albertovych [Fedorov], I'm sorry." On the protests that have been held in several Ukrainian cities, the general wrote that the issues of military contracts, procurement and mobilisation currently being aired in the press and boiled down to pithy slogans by protesters were a great deal more complicated than most people realised.