Volodymyr Zelenskiy fires top Ukraine army commander

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.”
 

I met with General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
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… pic.twitter.com/tMnUEZ3BCX

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 8, 2024

Shortly afterwards, Zelenskiy announced he had appointed Syrskyi.

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. “New approaches and new strategies are needed. Today, a decision was made on the need to change the leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine,” he said in a statement.

More details soon …