Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired his top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and replaced him with Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces.
The president posted a photograph of himself with Zaluzhnyi alongside the following statement: “I thanked him for the two years of defending Ukraine. We discussed the renewal that the armed forces of Ukraine require. We also discussed who could be part of the renewed leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine. The time for such a renewal is now. I proposed to Gen Zaluzhnyi to remain part of the team.”
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It is not unexpected, but may be a risky move as Zaluzhnyi is pretty popular among the Ukrainian society…
Fires seems like a strong word, was this a dishonorable reassignment?
There have been tensions between the two since last year. Not dishonorable so much as a question of strategy - or politics.
Rumor I heard is that they are potential rivals in the next presidential campaign.
Zaluzhny has also given interviews critical of Zelenskyy, which heads of state have traditionally never accepted from their military leadership.
Honorably told to gtfo.
Here’s additional coverage from the Kyiv Independent.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired his top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and replaced him with Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces.
The president posted a photograph of himself with Zaluzhnyi alongside the following statement: “I thanked him for the two years of defending Ukraine.
We also discussed who could be part of the renewed leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine.
Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal has been a much-discussed topic in Ukraine over the past 10 days, since a meeting last week in which Zelenskiy reportedly asked him to resign, which the commander declined to do.
The defence minister, Rustem Umerov, thanked Zaluzhnyi for his service but said it was time for a new direction in the army.
Today, a decision was made on the need to change the leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine,” he said in a statement.
The original article contains 189 words, the summary contains 140 words. Saved 26%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Zelenskiy said part of the task for the new commander would be devising a “new approach to mobilisation”, as exhausted troops at the front complain of depleted ranks and a lack of equipment. The international situation, with the US congress blocking a major aid package for Ukraine, has not helped.
The republiQans! The fucking republiQan party is blocking it, not “the US congress”! Get it right, Guardian! Republican, republiQan, fascists, putin-lickers, whatever is fine AS LONG AS YOU CALL THEM OUT SPECIFICALLY.
“US congress” is wrong. Just plain wrong. And you know that, don’t you, Guardian.
It is correct, though. They are writing from an international perspective, away from our little party games, so we are being lumped together.
If you don’t like it, all it takes is changing general public sentiment enough to change elections in your favor and doing it enough for them to notice.
Technically? Sure. But that’s not the point. This is just one of a million editorial sleight-of-hands that support the “both sides” narrative, and allow the republiQans to continue their indefensible bullshit without being named and shamed.
Guardian USA has been super suspicious lately and here’s yet another example of them tacitly supporting the right wing while still claiming it’s not technically incorrect.
ENOUGH. The vast majority of Americans want to support Ukraine, the republiQans WILL NOT ALLOW IT.
Just want to point out that saying things like republiQans makes you seem just as unhinged as people on the right saying things like democRATS or Sleepy Joe.
I get where you’re coming from, but you sound like a damn fool.
If you guys actually cared you would just unblock it.
