RIGA - The replacement of the Ukrainian army commander shows that the Ukrainian political leadership aims to change its strategy, Sandis Sraders, research fellow at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs and lecturer at the Baltic Defense College, told LETA.
As reported, Ukrainian armed forces Commander Valery Zaluzhny, who has led the fight against the Russian invaders since the start of the re-invasion on February 24, 2022, has been removed from his current post and replaced by the current commander of the ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky.
Asked why this change has taken place, the researcher stressed that the reasons are manifold. One of them is Zaluzhny's desire to increase the size of the Ukrainian army, which he has also spoken about in public. This was probably not the most popular decision with the public. Another reason could be the disagreement between the Ukrainian army leadership and the Ukrainian political leadership.
The expert noted that the war has been going on for almost two years. Any person who is responsible for the logistics of the Ukrainian army's attacks and other related issues on a day-to-day basis could have exhausted himself in purely human terms.
"Although there are various arguments in the public sphere, such as competition between politicians, misunderstanding, lack of change of strategy, I would like to use a comparison with sport. Also in sports, one person cannot play all the time, so the opportunity is given to another, no worse commander to lead the Ukrainian military," said Sraders.
The researcher pointed out that the war with Russia in the south of Ukraine has turned into frozen hostilities, which calls for a change of strategy. Sraders reminded that the Russian army suffered huge losses when it entered Ukraine and was quickly pushed back from Kyiv, one of Zaluzhny's successes. After some defeat, the Russian military also underwent a change of command and the Russians started using missiles. Instead of trying to take the capital and change the government, the Russians moved to south-eastern Ukraine, where the front line is currently frozen.
Sraders believes that the Ukrainian political leadership is aiming at a change of strategy to deal with the situation in southern Ukraine. He assumes that this is the reason for the change in command and the priorities presented by the new commander of the Ukrainian forces. "Zaluzhny himself has admitted this in an article in the Economist, namely that the war has reached the level of the First World War, that everything is happening in the trenches and that nothing is moving forward. Perhaps he himself said publicly that this change in Ukraine's military leadership has to happen," the researcher stressed.
In Sraders' view, there is no rebellion or mutiny between the Ukrainian military and the political elite. He stressed that Zaluzhny's success is undeniable. They are not denied by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for example, who invited Zaluzhny to join Syrsky's team in an advisory capacity, which the former commander of the Ukrainian army refused. Zaluzhny has previously said that a new strategy is needed, a change in the way the Ukrainian military is organized, a counter-offensive and the "forcing out" of the enemy from Ukrainian territory.
Asked whether Syrsky would succeed in developing a strong strategy, the researcher stressed that a strategy cannot be strong on its own, the military forces and the capabilities of the Ukrainian army are strong, which they have already demonstrated, but a strategy could be an effective way to organize Ukrainian attacks, for example by striking strategic points, breaking Russian resistance, enabling the Ukrainian military to advance. In Sraders' view, if Syrsky succeeds in this, he will gain enormous credibility in Ukraine, more than Zaluzhny had. Moreover, it will then be easier for Zelensky to ask for military support for Ukraine.
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