After long debate and controversy, the matter was resolved in Ukraine, with President Volodymyr Zelensky sacking Chief of General Staff General Valery Zaluzhny and appointing Commander of Ground Forces Colonel Alexander Sersky take over his duties.
With the war anniversary approaching on February 24, Selsky now has little time to establish a new military command. But how are these changes reflected on Ukrainian streets? How will they affect the front with Russia?
Contrary to many expectations, the dismissal was not met with street revolution or even outrage, but was simply passed off as important news, with reactions limited to comments of support and disapproval on social media sites.
A large portion of Ukrainians link the army’s success to sacked Defense Minister Valery Zaluzhny (Reuters)
Bad timing
Political analyst Vladimir Fesenko said that “the form of the dismissal helped to calm the situation because it went well and Zaluzhny seemed satisfied, accepted the decision willingly and acted with admirable responsibility,” Then Zelensky awarded him the noble medal.”
Finally, according to Fesenko, “the army is not Zaluzhny, and Zaluzhny is not the army, although a large part of Ukrainians associate the two and believe that the success of the army depends on Zaluzhny’s appointment.”
As for the military level, controversy erupted among military experts, some supporters of Serski’s new position and others who considered Zaluzhny’s dismissal “an ill-timed mistake.”
Military expert Oleg Zhdanov, colonel of the reserve forces, believes that “Selsky’s appointment is the last expected possibility, since he is not comparable to Zaluzhny and it will take several years for him to be enriched The experience prompted even Britain to pay tribute to him (Zaluzhny) because no one had done so before him.”
Zhdanov believes that Zaluzhny’s dismissal is also an “untimely military mistake” that will have a negative impact on a potentially divided front, especially given the mobilization crisis and ammunition shortages that the Ukrainian army is suffering.
What are the details of the dispute between Zelensky and the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces? (Al Jazeera)
Cruel “Thugs”
Before being awarded the Order of “Hero of Ukraine”, Sersky’s name appeared in the first weeks of Russia’s war in Ukraine, where he was credited with liberating the northern provinces of Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy, and then Kharkiv in the east, and parts of Nikolaev and Kherson in the south.
However, Sersky’s new sensitive stance is causing some Ukrainians today to talk about his origins, which are not as socially ignored as before and have fallen out of favor in Ukraine since the war began. In particular, he was born in a village near Moscow in 1965, studied in Moscow, and later served as an officer in the Soviet Red Army, and then moved to Ukraine to live and serve in the late 1980s.
But others saw the matter from a completely different perspective, calling it “nonsense” to discuss the matter and believing that Sersky’s experience gained during his time in the Soviet Union was more than up to the task and would help him in its accomplishment. .
“Today, as Ukrainians, we prefer the Western Atlantic Military School. But the situation is reality and we cannot change it,” said Ivan Stupak, a military expert at the Institute for the Future of Ukraine and a former adviser to the Ukrainian parliament on military and security affairs.
He went on to tell Al Jazeera that “The Selsky Soviet Military School helped him understand the Russian mentality in war and combat, and that’s what we actually saw in the first months of the war.”
In a not-so-distant context, some soldiers and media described Sersky as a “butcher or murderer,” as some Russian army commanders described him, a description used by both Ukrainians and Russians.
Stupak said: “The Ukrainian soldiers’ comments about Sersky’s appointment reflect the differences in opinions and expectations between them. Those who worked with him considered him a thug, while Sersky was known to have a very tough temper. Tends to have a harsh leadership style.”
But Stupak noted that “others saw that the team Selsky began to assemble, composed of well-known and experienced military personnel, would help reduce anxiety and create a balance of opinion.”
A Ukrainian soldier carries an anti-tank missile launcher on the front line in the Donetsk region (Reuters)
Take measures within a month
The streets of Ukraine are waiting for Sersky’s first move to reverse more than a year of stagnation on the front and make new progress in Ukraine’s interests.
Expert Stupak said: “We have to wait for the completion of Selsky’s team and the first concrete steps he will take to bring about some changes. I think he has a month to do this, otherwise criticism The wave will be bigger.”
But other experts did not have high expectations for Sersky’s first day in office, linking it to the realities and difficult issues facing Ukraine’s military.
Military analyst Denis Popovich said, “Sersky is a prisoner of problems that have put Ukraine and its army under pressure, most notably the controversial mobilization in the country’s society and the impact of the West, especially the U.S. Supplies have dwindled and the necessary ammunition is lacking, especially after the counterattack faltered last year.”
Popovich believes that one of Selsky’s most important tasks is to consider “measures that can help Ukraine fight even if Western support declines or ceases.”
#thug #appointment #affect #war #Ukraine #generals #sacking
2024-02-12 03:53:48
