How Zelenskyy explained Zaluzhnyi's dismissal and Syrskyi's appointment

On the evening of February 8, almost simultaneously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi posted  messages on Telegram stating that they had met to discuss the change of military leadership. Both posts made it clear that Ukraine would soon face serious personnel decisions, but it was not entirely clear whether Zaluzhnyi himself would be fired, and if so, who would be replaced. However, half an hour later, the President of Ukraine clarified all details.

At 18:37, on the official Telegram channel of the head of state, as well as on the YouTube channel of the President's Office, a video appears in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed the whole country that he had appointed a new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - Oleksandr Syrskyi.

"I offered General Zaluzhnyi to continue to be in the team of the Ukrainian state. I will be grateful for his consent", - Zelenskyy also emphasized.

The President of Ukraine also named other brigadier generals who are being considered for leadership positions in the army. However, the motivation and justification for Valeriy Zaluzhnyi's dismissal from his position remained the most unclear.

"Today, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are almost a million people who were called up to defend our country. As of today, most of them have not felt the frontline as much as the minority who are actually on the frontline. This means that we need a different approach, in particular to rotations, a different approach to managing the front, a different approach to mobilization and recruitment. All this will give more respect to the soldier and return clarity to the actions in the war", - Zelenskyy said.

That is, the president directly names the first and main reason for the dismissal of Valeriy Zaluzhnyi as the fact that he failed to cope with the rotation, mobilization and recruitment processes in the army. But first of all, let's find out who is responsible for all the above "shortcomings" Zaluzhnyi.

Mobilization

If you open Article 4, paragraph 5 of the current law "On mobilization preparation and mobilization," it clearly states that "The type, scope, procedure and term of mobilization are determined by the President of Ukraine in the decision on its conduct." Moreover, the same law states that the general management of mobilization processes is also entrusted to the head of state, organizational issues to the Cabinet of Ministers, and coordination between different branches of executive power during mobilization is the responsibility of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, currently headed by Oleksiy Danilov.

The law does not mention that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should be in charge of mobilization. On the contrary, he has no direct relation to it. To put it even more simply, state bodies, the Cabinet of Ministers, local governments, and the President of Ukraine are responsible for recruiting and training recruits to the army. And only after taking the oath do these servicemen become the responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Recruiting

The Ministry of Defense began to actively address this issue in November 2023 and even signed several relevant agreements, including with the employment platform Lobby X. According to this agreement, Ukrainians who voluntarily mobilize can choose the branch of the armed forces in which they want to serve. That is, the issue of recruitment was also entrusted to another executive body, the Ministry of Defense.

It was during Yanukovych's time that the Minister of Defense was also the head of the Ukrainian army. However, after the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine gradually moved to NATO standards, one of which is the separation of political and military leadership. That is why the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi was in no way involved, let alone responsible for recruiting in the army.

Rotation

Perhaps the only point that can be directly addressed to Zaluzhnyi because servicemen who have been at "zero" for a long time and are unable to go home to rest are directly subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. However, on February 2, Oleksandr Zavitnevych, the head of the parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, MP from the pro-presidential Servant of the People faction, said that the new government draft law on mobilization lacks a provision on rotation. That is, there has been no established mechanism for this rotation until now, and now the new draft law, which is being submitted by order of the President's Office, does not include such regulation. By the way, on February 7, this document was already adopted in the first reading - without provisions on military rotations. Why is that?

Because there are still not enough people to replace them! You can shout as much as you want about the need for rotation and the guys are tired, but if there is no one to replace them, what should you do? The right thing to do is to mobilize. This is exactly what Zaluzhnyi said last year when he criticized the government in his column in The Economist for its inability to gather the technical and human resources necessary for a successful counteroffensive. And it was with that publication that the public confrontation between Bankova and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces began.

By the way, in his address, Zelenskyy named problems with logistics, weapons supplies, and the unfair redistribution of these weapons between military formations as another reason for Zaluzhnyi's dismissal.

"Avdiivka should not wait for the generals to find out where their drones are stuck in their warehouses", - the President of Ukraine emphasized.

But here we have to remind Mr. Zelenskyy that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces does not deal with the supply of weapons - this is the prerogative of the Minister of Defense! It is Rustem Umerov who must agree with our Western partners on the number of shells that conditional Poland will give us, the number of F-16 fighters we will receive from the Netherlands, or the figures that will be specified in the bill on military aid from the United States and the European Union. The Minister supplies the ammunition, and the Commander-in-Chief uses it to destroy the russians! This is the order in which processes take place in the civilized world, to which Ukraine has belonged for several years now.

As for logistics, returning to the aforementioned and still valid law on mobilization, namely Article 6, again, this is not the prerogative of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces! These responsibilities are mainly assigned to the Cabinet of Ministers and other central and local authorities.

"If a general does not know the front, he does not serve Ukraine", - Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the end of the video.

This quote is likely to make a lot of noise not only among civilians who are far from knowing what is happening at the front, but also among the military, at least those with whom I have talked. If this was addressed to Zaluzhnyi, then you missed the mark, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych! The war with the occupiers is currently underway, and the last thing I want to do is to start a rumor or criticize the government for some trifles. However, replacing Zaluzhnyi, who enjoys more support from the population and the military than Zelenskyy himself, is not a trifle. Replacing a general whom the whole world calls ironclad, and moscovia dreams of his dismissal, is no small matter. Therefore, I would like to get more clear claims against Zaluzhnyi and a clearer explanation of what exactly he failed to do. And it is desirable that it was his direct area of responsibility.

And now Zelenskyy has simply opened the way for Zaluzhnyi to enter the political arena because while holding the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the law prohibited him from engaging in any political activity. Now the door is open. And now the only justification for Zaluzhnyi's dismissal (the decrees, by the way, appeared on the website of the President's Office only 2.5 hours after the video address) may be that Zelenskyy decided to send a signal to all Ukrainians - here is your next president!