Why Zelenskyy Replaced Ukraine's Top General | Russia-Ukraine War Updates | N18G

[00:00:00]Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked his country's commander-in-chief, General Alexander Syrsky. It comes after days of widespread protests resulting from another dismissal. Popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was removed last week after clashing with Syrsky.

[00:00:15]CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.

[00:00:19]>> A generational shift. The younger Ukrainians doing the fighting now run by a general nearer their age, 43-year-old Mykhailo Drapatii. Out, Alexander Syrsky, age 60, who for years met the Soviet brutality of Russia with similar resolve and ruthlessness. Nicknamed the Butcher, he became the face of the relentless ugly toll of the war on frontline troops. Sending people to die is something a wartime general has to do, along with always be winning to stay popular. And while Syrsky had notched up enough small victories, they did not save him from modernity.

[00:00:56]His wartime resume begins with the defense of Kyiv, where thousands of locals bolstered the city's route of the Russians.

[00:01:03]The Kharkiv counteroffensive in late 2022 saw Russia collapse, a startling reversal exposing poor command and supply lines, for which Syrsky is credited.

[00:01:22]But his rivalry with his boss, then Commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi, many analysts have said, led Syrsky to push a focus on the city of Bakhmut during the next summer and leave the main push of the counteroffensive, Ukraine's main chance to break Russia's road to Crimea with a flood of new Western equipment, to falter.

[00:01:43]Zaluzhnyi lost his job months later to Syrsky, who swiftly needed a win after so many slow losses, including Bakhmut.

[00:01:52]The response was daring and stunning, if not strategically sound in the long run.

[00:01:57]The first invasion of Russia since the Nazis, Kursk.

[00:02:10]A major embarrassment for Putin and a turn in the narrative until Ukraine slowly left the next year. Ultimately, the war changed around Ukraine and Syrsky as a younger generation found tech could compensate for a lack of brute force and people.

[00:02:25]Mykhailo Fedorov, the disruptor in chief and new Minister of Defense leading the use of drones early to hit deep inside Russia.

[00:02:34]IT, data, open tenders for equipment, transparency, questioning everything, and robots and more robots. Nothing could be further from the Syrsky way of war.

[00:02:46]But it began to work and gained popularity, the major metric in Zelenskyy's decision-making. Fedorov too popular, it seemed, when he openly clashed with Syrsky, leaving the older general, whose failings and frailty had been the talk of Kyiv for months, suddenly the victor when Zelenskyy edged out a rising star.

[00:03:07]That was until rare Kyiv protests switched to focus on Syrsky, leaving Zelenskyy with another popularity crisis, his own, and in need of a new military commander. A bizarrely open and fickle back and forth democracy in wartime, some say, or the president ditching losers, or out with the old and in with the new. Whatever just happened, they too have to keep winning.

[00:03:35]>> Well, that was Nick Payton Walsh and he joins me now live from London with more.

[00:03:39]Nick, really good to have you with us.

[00:03:41]Uh and really brilliant analysis. I mean, I wonder what this says about the rifts that have been emerging within wartime leadership in Ukraine. And what What consequences will these changes have for the country going forward?

[00:03:55]>> Now, I mean, it's important to remind people that obviously during war you're going to have competing ideas and tension in the high command. The issue here has been though that this spilled out into the open and until last night's effective resolution of the problem by removing Oleksandr Syrskyi as the top military commander and putting in a man 17 years his younger, Mykhailo Drapati, we had this public tension between the former defense minister, another Mykhailo, Mykhailo Fedorov, and Syrskyi, the military commander. Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, was clear that that, you know, was boiling up to the public. There were clear hints that the two men clashing and obviously in private there was even more of a deadlock. And Zelenskyy said he was the man who had to be the arbiter and that's no way to run a war. The question is though exactly what Zelenskyy did as his first solution to that problem. Now, Mykhailo Fedorov, the former defense minister, aged 35, a big disrupter, hugely popular amongst many Ukrainians and rank and file in the military. He was the one at first to go, dismissed by Zelenskyy. Cue the protests you saw there and then he switches tack and dismisses Syrskyi, putting in not Fedorov back in his place. Yet, we don't know where Fedorov's going to go. It's suggested he's going to get a prominent role in government. He may not accept it. But instead creating a week's worth of protest, crisis, and debate within government as to exactly what should be done. And then landing on a solution which I think many potentially thought was the wisest one a week ago, removing Syrskyi, a commander whose role had been questioned in the months previous to this particular crisis. Finally it happens, a younger generation in control now, it seems. The big question though, Eleni, is to exactly whether or not the new solutions they have have a permanent role in reversing Russia's fortune in this conflict.

[00:05:48]>> Our next guest is Oleksandr Merezhko, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the Ukrainian Parliament. He joins us now from Kyiv. Quite a busy, tumultuous week it has been in Kyiv in terms of domestic politics, Oleksandr, not to mention the ongoing war and the once again another huge bombardment of ballistic missiles from Russia over the weekend. Just talk about this decision right now at a time when there is momentum in Ukraine's favor on the battlefield, from the world stage, praise from Donald Trump even, to make a shift like this. How big of a mistake was this? And do you think that he has rectified it enough at this point?

[00:06:34]>> Well, it's definitely extremely important move on the part of President to make this change and to invite to appoint General Syrskyi instead of General Syrskyi.

[00:06:48]It's not about kind of struggle within or infighting of for political reasons. It's more a change of generations because General Syrskyi, and I believe that we should be grateful for everything he has done because he left the situation on the ground when our armed forces are on the offensive, when we are winning the war. We should be grateful for that. But the time has come for a new generation of officers, new generation of generals which are more advanced, which don't belong to the old school, educated in Soviet times. So, it's an important and natural move on the part of President to appoint a new commander-in-chief.

[00:07:33]>> And when you think about the differences between the commander-in-chief or I should say the former commander-in-chief and the former defense minister, although Fedorov might end up in a different position in government. We're still waiting for confirmation on that.

[00:07:45]When you think about the difference in in terms of their vision, I mean, as you point out, Syrsky was more of the sort of Soviet era, you know, a lot of young people in Ukraine saw him as a relic of the past, quite frankly. Talk to us about Fedorov's achievements as defense minister, because he was only 35 years old, very young. He was only in position in this position for 6 months, and he achieved quite a lot, including um persuading Elon Musk he reached out to Elon Musk via Twitter or X, saying, "Listen, can Ukraine have access to Starlink?" And then also uh essentially banning or limiting Russia's use illicit use of Starlink, as well. And then advancements in drone warfare technology, as well. Um he achieved quite a bit for just 6 months in that job. Just walk us through that.

[00:08:34]>> Yes, uh yeah, it's true that even though he has been uh as a defense minister for only 6 months, but he managed to achieve a lot of uh important reforms. Uh he's an innovator, and he has uh very interesting and important experience as a minister of uh digital digitalization.

[00:08:55]So, and using all the his experience, uh he managed to introduce more, for example, in terms of uh drones war. Uh he also managed to establish order when it comes to procurement and uh contracts to buy weaponry. It's also important uh in our in our situation. So, and uh people uh seeing him uh an innovator, he uh they seeing him very advanced uh reformer, and uh they uh been great hopes uh on Mr. Fedorov, and hopefully he will be reinstated, but at the moment president has offered some other positions for Mr. Fedorov, and it remains to be seen whether he will accept this position for example vice prime minister or he will insist to be reinstated as a defense minister.

[00:09:45]>> There was a great deal of domestic consternation over Vladimir Zelensky's decision last week to push out Fedorov because of this internal dispute between him and another senior general.

[00:09:59]What you see now the promotion to the most senior ranks of a very popular Ukrainian general with roots going back to the early days of the war and offering this other position to Fedorov.

[00:10:09]Do you think Zelensky has somehow flipped the script here?

[00:10:13]>> I think he's trying to write a a ship that became unbalanced. I mean look Fedorov is a great guy really impressive young minister did lots of great work at the ministry for digital transformation.

[00:10:23]He led the sort of organized the Ukrainian cyber army. He set up the sort of army of drones and he did lots of very very creative things about driving drone innovation and if you like gameifying drone warfare so it made it accessible but also he drove to make it as effective as possible in deterring and frankly killing Russians. I would be wary about saying that Fedorov is the good guy and Sirsky the former commander is the bad one. Clearly there was not a meeting of minds but Sirsky didn't fail in his job. He may have been in it a bit too long now but you know he has led the Ukrainian army effectively to to fight Russia to pretty much almost certainly almost a standstill in the east and south of the country and even if there was now a clash between them it sounds like Fedorov is back in in some guys and the new guy guy a general a Drapachy he was a fighting general. So our equivalent he would have been a lieutenant colonel at the start of the war had his own battalion and so he is from that generation that have fought with drones but also fought on the ground and fought hard against the Russians back in 2014 and then from 2022 onwards. So it's actually probably pretty good choice and I think for Ukraine and Zelensky, I think so far it's a good outcome respecting the the good work that Sirsky Sirsky did.