FT and Meduza: Zelensky weighs firing top general Oleksandr Syrsky amid protests over ousted defense minister

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is weighing whether to dismiss Oleksandr Syrsky as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, the Financial Times reported, citing a senior Ukrainian administration official.

According to the source, Zelensky is convening military commanders this weekend to hear their assessments of the situation at the front and to meet with potential candidates for the top command post.

Zelensky is prepared to remove Syrsky if he finds a commander who can ensure a smooth transition of command without disrupting Ukraine’s front-line defenses, the source said. The paper reported that Zelensky began considering Syrsky’s dismissal after mass protests erupted in Ukrainian cities over the firing of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister.

Update: The Ukrainian President’s Office is seriously considering dismissing Syrsky if protests in Ukrainian cities continue, a source close to the office confirmed to Meduza. The people around the president had not initially expected such a strong public reaction to the defense minister’s dismissal, the source said. “The protesters now have two key demands: bring back Fedorov and fire Syrsky. Bringing back Fedorov is already extremely unlikely, but Syrsky is a different matter,” he said. In the source’s assessment, the commander-in-chief’s dismissal is “quite likely.” On the evening of July 17, the president spoke with several Ukrainian brigade commanders, according to the source. In the source’s view, these were “informal auditions.”

A senior Defense Ministry official told the outlet that Syrsky’s problem is his inability to articulate a convincing vision of how Ukraine can win the war.

“One problem is Syrsky hasn’t got a sense of how he’s going to win. Syrsky’s theory of victory is simply to hold out as long as you can and mobilize more people,” the source said.

Zelensky announced the resignation of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on July 12, a move that automatically triggered the resignation of the entire cabinet. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the government’s resignation on July 14. The following day, it emerged that Fedorov would not be reappointed as Ukraine’s defense minister and would not be included in the new cabinet.

The decision to dismiss Fedorov sparked mass protests in cities across Ukraine. On July 17, an estimated 10,000 people turned out for a rally in Kyiv, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

The former defense minister himself spoke to journalists and said that Syrsky had pushed for Fedorov’s dismissal. In Fedorov’s view, Syrsky is the one who should be dismissed.