The dismissal, in the middle of the war with Russia, of the very popular Valery Zalouzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armies, arouses regret and concern among civilians and soldiers, interviewed by AFP on Friday, in Kiev or on the front.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday the replacement of General Zalouzhny, in office before the Russian invasion of February 2022, by Oleksandr Syrsky, until then commander of the land forces.
“In my opinion, this is inappropriate and wrong. Because (Zaluzhny) is the only person who really thought about Ukraine,” said Olga Krut, 33, a resident of kyiv and on maternity leave.
The outgoing general “showed himself the best for two years”, he “tried to do something to maintain the unity of the army and people had a certain confidence in him”, adds the young woman.
The change of military leader comes as the Ukrainian army is in difficulty on the front, soldiers tired after two years of war, and a controversial bill on necessary mobilization under consideration in Parliament.
While Zaluzhny’s popularity has remained at highs since the start of the war, while President Zelensky’s is in decline, some suggest that the head of state has made the decision to eliminate a potential competitor.
“Politics is a game, it’s chess and you understand that Zelensky may have seen a rival,” judges Pavlo Kostenko, a 32-year-old financial operator.
Others criticize bad timing, at the start of a third year of war. “As they say, you don’t change horses along the way,” says Valentyna Polichtchouk, a souvenir seller.
“Everyone came to love and trust Zaluzhny, and now there is a murky situation,” she continues.
Anatoliï, 30, an employee in a shoe store, thinks on the contrary that the time had come for change. “The first period of the war was one thing. Now we are already living in a different period, with a different scale, different projects, different tactics. So maybe it’s timely,” he says.
He admits, however, that he does not know the replacement, General Syrsky: “we have a new pilot, but we do not know how he drives. »
Valentyn Shevchenko, a 23-year-old soldier currently in kyiv, predicted “a negative impact” on the troops.
“No one will stop fighting”
Several front-line soldiers interviewed by AFP do not mince their words regarding the new commander-in-chief.
“I’m on my ass!” », Says a 46-year-old soldier on condition of anonymity, deployed in the East.
For “Luntik”, as a sergeant calls himself in the eastern region of Donetsk, “it’s honestly not a joy”. “Zaluzhny had something that no one else had, trust and respect. No other military leader has as many,” he says.
“Some people really call him ‘butcher’,” adds this fifty-year-old about General Syrsky, because he “does not consider it necessary to spare people. People are expendable for him. It’s the Soviet military training school.”
Another fighter, stationed near Lyman, said he even saw, with his comrades, “a betrayal”.
He too claims that their new leader is known to prioritize military objectives rather than the lives of soldiers.
“It’s an approach that is no different from that of Russia,” he said, fearing that the Ukrainian army would soon carry out “major attacks” hailed as successes by the media, but “no one will say at what human cost.
But “no one will stop fighting,” he adds, because the fate of the country “depends above all on us and not on the president.”
Rouslan, a charioteer, also near Lyman, found the rearrangement “disturbing.”
“The negative point is that Ukraine may try to attack. But it doesn’t have the means,” he says, while the army is on the defensive and cruelly lacking in ammunition in the face of Russian assaults.
The new boss wants “improvement”
Ukraine claims drone attack on two refineries in Russia
Ukraine claimed responsibility for a nighttime drone attack on two Russian oil refineries in the Krasnodar region on Friday, while the Russian Defense Ministry assured it had destroyed 19 of these devices in its skies during the night.
“The drones of the (Ukrainian security, editor’s note) service hit two refineries in the Krasnodar region at the same time: not only that of Ilsky, but also that of Afipsky,” one of them welcomed to AFP. source within the Ukrainian special services.
At the Ilsky refinery, according to this source, “a large fire broke out and the primary processing unit, with a capacity of 3.6 million tonnes per year, was damaged”.
This refinery had already been targeted by a Ukrainian drone attack last year.
The Afipsky refinery was also “affected”, but “the consequences are being assessed”, explained the same source to AFP.
Ukraine has increased drone and missile attacks targeting energy and military facilities on Russian soil in recent months, a means of depriving Moscow of key resources to carry out its assault on its neighbor.
“These refineries are legitimate targets. Not only do they work for defense and provide fuel to Russian troops, but they are also important for the Russian economy,” the Ukrainian source explained.
Local Russian emergency services in the Krasnodar region have acknowledged the existence of a fire at the Ilsky oil refinery, but have not made a link between this incident and the drone attacks reported by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Because the Russian army had earlier assured, as usual, that it had neutralized 19 Ukrainian drones in the night in four different regions – including Krasnodar – and above the Black Sea.
In the Orel region, about 300 km southwest of Moscow, the attack targeted energy infrastructure sites, without causing any casualties, the regional governor, Andrei Klychkov, said on Telegram.
In this context, the Russian army announced Friday that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had inspected a command post of Russian forces engaged in Ukraine, without specifying when this visit took place.
As the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches at the end of February, Russians and Ukrainians attack each other daily using explosive drones, whether on the front or deeper.
Ukraine said Friday it had shot down 10 of the 16 Iranian-designed Shahed drones launched by Russia overnight, without giving details of those which passed through its anti-aircraft defenses.