KYIV, Ukraine (NEWSnet/AP) — Ukraine’s new military chief indicated Friday that he plans to take a tougher approach in the war with Russia, saying his immediate goals are to improve troop rotation at the front lines and leverage new technology.
Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who previously was the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, spoke a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put him in charge of the battlefield campaign with the war poised to enter its third year.
He replaced the broadly popular Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
[Earlier Report: Ukraine's President Appoints New Army Leader at Pivotal Point in War With Russia]
“New tasks are on the agenda,” Syrskyi said on his Telegram channel.
Though he provided little detail, his remarks appeared to align with Zelenskyy’s stated aim of bringing “renewal” to the armed forces with Thursday’s shake-up and adopting a fresh approach to the fight.
But the changes at the top won’t solve some of Ukraine’s biggest problems: a shortage of manpower, and an inadequate supply of Western weapons.
“It’s not going to be easy” for Syrskyi, said Marina Miron, a researcher at the War Studies Department of King’s College London. “There are a lot of problems” for Ukraine at the moment.
In the meantime, Zelenskyy signed orders Friday to award Zaluzhnyi and Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, with the Golden Star award, the country’s highest honor.
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