President Zelenskyy thanked General Valerii Zaluzhnyi for his service and says he should remain “on his team.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Oleksandr Syrsky, who has led Ukraine's ground forces since 2019, as the new head of Ukraine's armed forces, after he dismissed General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy on Thursday thanked Zaluzhnyi for his two years of service and said the time had come for changes in the military leadership.
Zelenskyy said Zaluzhnyi should remain “on his team.”
I met with General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
I thanked him for two years of defending Ukraine.
We discussed the renewal required by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
We also discussed who could be part of the renewed leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The moment of such renewal… pic.twitter.com/tMnUEZ3BCX— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 8, 2024
Zaluzhnyi admitted that the country's military strategy “must change” almost two years after the Russian invasion.
“The tasks of 2022 are different from those of 2024. Therefore, everyone must also change and adapt to the new realities in order to win together,” he said after his long-rumored dismissal was announced.
The move marks the most serious reshuffle of the military's top leadership since Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The war does not remain the same. War changes and demands change. New approaches and new strategies are needed. Today the decision was made on the need to change the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” said Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov.
Zelenskyy said the military's new leadership team will take command on Thursday.
He called on the country's new military leaders to devise a strategy this year to push back Russian forces.
“A realistic and detailed action plan for the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 2024 should be on the table, taking into account the current real situation on the battlefield and the prospects,” Zelenskyy said.
Last year, he said, Ukraine managed to “regain control” of the sky, but he said it failed to achieve goals “on the ground.”
Zelenskyy said the country needs “job rotation systems” and a new approach to mobilization and recruitment.
