Zelenskyy dismisses Ukraine’s top general

By MARC SANTORA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed his top general on Tuesday amid swelling public protests and growing concerns that the national unity that had helped the country survive nearly five years of war was in danger of fracturing.

The dismissal of Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi was a major reversal for Zelenskyy, who just days earlier sided with the general and fired Ukraine’s defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov.

Thousands of people had joined mass demonstrations to pressure Zelenskyy to change course and reaffirm Fedorov’s vision of warfare as increasingly dominated by drones and robots. As he championed a military overhaul that leaned into high-tech innovation, Fedorov, 35, emerged as a symbol of hope to many Ukrainians, particularly young people.

Fedorov’s dismissal after only six months in the job came as Ukraine seemed to finally have regained the initiative in the war, in large part through the increasingly effective use of long- and medium-range drones to strike targets in Russia and Crimea.

Zelenskyy said that he had been forced to choose between the two men as the differences between their camps had become impossible to resolve.

Ultimately, as the protests grew, it became clear that the rift extended far beyond a clash of personalities. For many Ukrainians, Fedorov embodied a modern, tech-driven path to victory that might spare lives, while Syrskyi had come to represent the darkest, most punishing realities of a war fought through sheer attrition.

While Syrskyi, 60, was praised for his role in the defense of Kyiv and a counteroffensive in Kharkiv in September 2022, his tenure after his appointment as commander in chief of the armed forces in February 2024 faced scrutiny.

Like many senior Ukrainian commanders, Syrskyi was trained in the Soviet military system, in which personal loyalty was frequently valued over tactical innovation. Critics described him as rigid and out of touch, and he never won widespread public admiration.

During the prolonged and bloody 2023 battle of Bakhmut, Syrskyi earned the nickname “the Butcher” for his perceived tolerance of high casualties for limited tactical gains. It was a narrative he disputed, saying that preserving soldiers’ lives was his top priority.

Criticism of Syrskyi erupted almost immediately after Fedorov was fired. Veterans, analysts and active-duty soldiers accused Syrskyi of blocking initiatives to adapt to a rapidly changing battlefield. Protesters took to the streets with signs bearing variations of “Fedorov is innovation, old grandpas are degeneration.”