Zürcher Nachrichten - Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine's fired commander-in-chief

His position unravelled in the space of a dramatic week in Kyiv, with President Volodymyr Zelensky pulling the trigger after a botched political reshuffle triggered the largest protests since Russia invaded.

The massive upheaval to Ukraine's military machine comes as the country appeared to be in its best position in the war for months.

Syrsky had halted Russia's advance on Kyiv after the 2022 invasion and led Ukraine's brazen counter-attack into Russia's Kursk region in 2024.

But, born in Russia and trained in Moscow, the 60-year-old never managed to shake his reputation as a Soviet-style general.

Critics accused him of not caring about the number of his troops killed, earning him the nickname "butcher."

"He is very tough, but an army general has to be tough," a high-placed Ukrainian official told AFP after his 2024 appointment as commander-in-chief.

As fatigue -- and anger at army scandals -- grew, that approach grated.

Zelensky's surprise ousting of reformist Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov -- brought in to modernise the army -- was the beginning of the end.

Thousands took to the streets demanding Syrsky, not Fedorov, be removed.

After days locked in meetings with dozens of the country's top military figures, Zelensky relented late on Tuesday.

- 'Not a politician' -

For a while, Zelensky appeared to side with Syrsky.

To the Ukrainian leader -- seen as mistrusting of those with political ambitions or popular appeal -- the ever-loyal Syrsky, a career military man, was in many respects an ideal commander.

"My job is war ... I have no political ambitions. I deal with the war 24/7," Syrsky said in a rare article published Monday.

Analysts agreed Syrsky was not a threat to Zelensky, unlike his predecessor, the ultra-popular Valery Zaluzhny, who was removed.

"He is not a politician. Just look at him. He speaks Ukrainian poorly and is not a public communicator," analyst Anatolii Oktysiuk of the KI Research Group in Kyiv told AFP.

"He always adapts to what Zelensky wants."

That style in the end, was at the heart of his downfall.

Syrsky "built a system in which initiative and independence are suppressed, while a loyal cadre of generals is promoted instead," Oktysiuk said.

In a blistering attack after being ousted, Fedorov said Syrsky had hobbled his attempts at modernisation -- on procurement, equipment and mobilisation.

"All the initiatives we were proposing started to be blocked, and Syrsky ... is not ready to look you in the eye and openly talk about those problems," Fedorov said.

- Russian roots -

Like many officers of his generation, Syrsky was born in Soviet Russia and studied at a Red Army academy in Moscow.

In the 1980s, he was deployed to Soviet Ukraine, staying there to study at the National Defence University in Kyiv and joining the new Ukrainian army after the USSR collapse.

Three decades later, his command of the Ukrainian language is far from perfect and his parents and brother still live in Russia.

When appointed, his brother told Russia's state TASS news agency the pair had long stopped talking.

"I'm not in touch with him ... I don't know anything about him," he was cited as saying.

After Ukraine attacked Russia's western Kursk region, a popular internet meme quipped: "Syrsky explained the reason for the attack on Kursk: 'I just want to go home'."

Discreet about his personal life, Syrsky is married and the father of two sons, an army spokesman told AFP.

- 'Younger version' -

Even his critics acknowledged his military achievements -- which Zelensky also triumphed in his statement announcing his departure.

Syrsky led the defence of Kyiv when Russia tried to surround the city in the first days of its invasion.

Six months later, he inflicted a humiliating defeat with a lightning counter-offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

And then in 2024 he masterminded the Kursk attack -- the first sustained foreign incursion into Russia since WWII.

"It is a fact that Oleksandr Syrsky ensured Ukraine's successes in the defense of Kyiv, in the Kharkiv offensive operation, and in the Kursk operation," Zelensky said.

But past successes were not enough for his critics.

"The war has completely changed ... The command-and-control system has changed, and we have to change," ex-defence minister Fedorov said.

That change is coming in the shape of Mykhailo Drapaty, a 43-year-old senior commander long rumoured as a possible successor whom Zelensky tapped to take Syrsky's place.

As speculation over Syrsky's future swirled last week, he issued a rare public statement saying the army needed to continue with its modernisation drive.

O.Hofer--NZN