Planning and discipline
The Washington Post writes that General Oleksandr Syrskyi is taking over command at a difficult time – the war is entering its third year, the Ukrainian army is once again facing a shortage of ammunition and people, and Kyiv is having problems attracting Western aid.
The fact that President Zelensky chose General Syrsky as the new Commander-in-Chief is not a surprise, the American publication believes, as few of the country's military leadership have the experience to succeed the extremely popular Valery Zaluzhny. And the fact that, despite his popularity, he tried to stay in the shadows, allowing the president to appear alone "in the light of the soffits", did not prevent his resignation.
WP reminds that since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Syrskyi commanded the troops in the east of Ukraine. And even then his scrupulous planning and iron discipline became known.
At the same time, WP reminds, it is General Syrskyi who is behind several great successes of Ukraine in this war. For example, against the background of many in Ukraine rejecting Western warnings about Russia's preparations for war, he managed to organize a successful defense of Kyiv in the first days of the Russian invasion. For this he received the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Syrsky also had a successful counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022, when he succeeded in recapturing Russian-occupied Kupyansk and Izyum.
But he also led the battles at Bakhmut - the longest and bloodiest operation in which the Ukrainian side suffered the greatest losses.
But the tactics of restraining the Russians at a point insignificant from the point of view of strategy made it possible to exhaust the Russian forces and prevent their offensive in more important directions.
Big changes in the most difficult time
The Wall Street Journal also writes that the change in the top military leadership of Ukraine took place at the most difficult time since the beginning of the war .
The ouster of Zaluzhny , extremely popular among both civilians and the military, comes as the country faces mounting challenges on the battlefield -- shortages of men and ammunition, and approval of additional U.S. aid is blocked in Congress, the newspaper recalls.
This step, the WSJ writes, carries significant risks for the Ukrainian president, because, according to polls, Zaluzhny is trusted by most Ukrainians, and he could successfully compete with Zelenskyi, although the general has never publicly voiced any political ambitions.
Soviet "leopard"
Reuters also writes about the defense of Kyiv, the liberation of Kharkiv Oblast and Bakhmut . But there they also remind that General Syrskyi was born under the Russian Volodymyr and studied in Moscow at the Higher Combined Arms Command School, and has lived in Ukraine only since the 1980s.
Some military analysts, the publication notes, believe that it is his training and the first years of his career in the Soviet army that determine his strategy on the battlefield even now.
On the other hand, the manner in which Syrskyi managed the hostilities in eastern Ukraine from 2014 earned him the nickname "Snow Leopard", adds Reuters. The general himself once explained that at that time the Ukrainian troops used tactics very similar to how this beast hunts - "very attentive, cunning and brave".
Recalling the long battles near Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers died on both sides, Reuters draws attention to the reaction of Syrskyi, who explained that Ukrainian resistance there made it possible to neutralize Wagner's group. The agency also notes that Moscow apparently perceives him as a real threat, as evidenced by several assassination attempts on him.
The agency also draws attention to the principle that Syrsky himself, after a successful counteroffensive in 2022, called an "artificial advantage" in a battle when there are very well-fortified areas, and not very well, and that the ability to find a loophole in the defense at the right moment "still has not lost its importance ".
"Butcher" and "General 200"
The New York Times recounts last winter's battle for Bakhmut from a different perspective, noting that when it was clear that Ukraine would lose the battle, General Syrsky insisted that the decision to defend Bakhmut was the right one because the Russians had lost more soldiers than the Ukrainians.
However, when Bakhmut was lost, and thousands of soldiers fell on him in the battles, it did not add to Sirsky's popularity among the rank-and-file soldiers, and the nickname "butcher" spread to him in the army.
And Politico even uses this nickname in the title of its material - "Zaluzhny left, the "butcher" came." The publication mentions Syrsky's success in the defense of Kyiv and the liberation of Kharkiv region, but focuses on Bakhmut, where the general sent soldiers under fire "wave after wave" - "like in a meat grinder", but in the end, the Wagnerites captured the city.
It is because of this and other similar orders that Syrskyi is extremely unpopular in the army, the publication asserts, referring to its own sources, who anonymously told Politico that in addition to the nickname "the butcher", General Syrskyi is also called "General 200".
