A new general takes over as Ukraine struggles on the battlefield

General Oleksandr Syrsky, who was appointed commander of the Ukrainian army led two successful counter-offensives in the war against Russia on Thursday before his forces became bogged down in one of the conflict's most controversial and costly battles.

It was a prolonged, brutal period of urban fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut last winter, and even as Ukraine was clearly losing ground in the fighting, General Syrsky, then commander of the ground forces, had argued that the decision to to go was healthy because Russia lost more soldiers than Ukraine.

Ukraine maintained what military parlance calls a favorable outcome in the street fighting in Bakhmut, but it did little to win support for the general's strategy among rank-and-file soldiers. Bakhmut eventually fell after Ukraine lost thousands of troops in the heavy fighting.

The nickname “the Butcher” for General Syrsky is now widespread in the Ukrainian military.

In the two previous successful battles – in defense of the capital Kiev and in the northern region of Kharkov – General Syrsky's soldiers had turned to small-unit tactics and quick maneuvers to defeat the larger, better-armed Russian forces. But it was his willingness to engage in an exhausting war for Bakhmut, no matter how much the losses were in Ukraine's favor, that drew criticism from the United States and has tarnished the general's reputation in the Ukrainian military.

General Syrsky takes command of the army after the front line has hardened, as rapid advance of Ukrainian forces seems a distant prospect. deep uncertainty about the future of military aid from the country's main ally, the United States, and because a plan to mobilize more soldiers in Ukraine has stalled, complicating military planning.

How the general will prosecute the two-year war against the Russian invasion will be largely beyond his control, depending on the Western weapons and new manpower at his disposal.

Still, Mychailo Samus, director of the Ukrainian Army Conversion and Disarmament Center, a military research organization in Kiev, said President Volodymyr Zelensky will replace President Volodymyr Zelensky's appointment General Valery Zaluzhny meant a focus on ground combat. Ukraine must risk an advance and the cost of lives and equipment, Mr. Samus said, or be forced to negotiate a ceasefire or a settlement on unfavorable terms.

When asked if the Pentagon had made contact with Ukraine's new military chief, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had not spoken to Gen. Syrsky. “One thing that will not change,” he added, “is our continued support for Ukraine in their efforts to defend themselves against Russian aggression.”

General Syrsky, who will take command of Ukrainian forces in Europe's biggest war since World War II, was trained at an elite military academy in Moscow before the collapse of the Soviet Union – and has spent much of spent his career fighting the Russians. He is well acquainted with the tactics of his country's enemy.

He started his career in the Soviet Army in 1986; After joining the army of the newly independent Ukraine in 1991, he gradually rose through the ranks. Between 2007 and 2014, he held several high-profile positions in the General Staff, and after Russia illegally annexed Crimea a decade ago and fueled the war in eastern Ukraine, he was appointed deputy commander of the Anti-Terror Operation, taking direct charge . battle with Russian forces. In 2019, he became head of Ukraine's ground forces, a position he held until his promotion on Thursday.

Complicating his command is the fact that he is taking a job vacated by a general highly regarded by the military and wider society, in what is widely seen as a politicized shake-up of Ukraine's military leadership.

Some soldiers and subordinate commanders in the Ukrainian army view General Syrsky as a relic of an older generation, saying his embrace of a frontal battle in Bakhmut showed he was pursuing bloody, Soviet-style military tactics against an enemy doing the same.

A Ukrainian platoon commander who has fought on and off in the east since 2014, and under General Syrsky since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, said the general had shown little willingness to adapt as new tactics and new technologies have developed. appeared on the battlefield. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

But the general has his supporters.

The battle for Bakhmut also cemented his reputation as a strong commander who puts emotions aside, some say. General Syrsky, said Hanna Maliar, a former Ukrainian deputy defense minister, “has enormous combat experience in this war.”

He has also worked closely with NATO on programs to modernize the military, beginning in 2013. And in the battles to repel the attack on Kiev and drive Russian forces out of the Kharkov region, he and his subordinates did not trust on mutual confrontations. infantry warfare, but on deception and rapid maneuvers by small units.

General Syrsky commanded troops fighting Russian forces and their separatist allies in the eastern Donbas region from 2014. He led the Ukrainian retreat there from the town of Debaltseve in 2015, teaching the military a bitter lesson in negotiated ceasefires.

In that battle, thousands of Ukrainian troops were partially surrounded by Russian forces, who had advanced close enough to the only access road to the city to immediately open fire with tanks. To save the soldiers, Ukraine made political concessions in exchange for a ceasefire, which Russia broke within days.

Rather than surrender, General Syrsky ordered the soldiers to withdraw under fire at night, and more than a hundred were killed in a harrowing flight across agricultural fields to reach Ukrainian lines.

In the current large-scale war, General Syrsky has shown that he can fight despite a lack of equipment and troops. In Kiev, he commanded lightly armed troops fighting on the outskirts of the city, largely supported by Ukrainian artillery systems from the Soviet Union.

General Syrsky was selected for the top military position over a man considered his main competitor for the job: military intelligence commander General Kyrylo Budanov, who had overseen a campaign of sabotage and drone strikes behind the enemy lines and within Russia.

These operations are asymmetrical and seek to damage Russia using innovative tactics and technology, such as drones that outweigh Moscow's superior numbers of men and weapons.

“Zelensky has no choice but to take all possible steps that will allow Ukraine to win,” said Mr. Samus, the military analyst. “It is a mistake to base your military decisions on the love of the people.”

Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting from London, Marc Santora from Kiev, Ukraine, and Helene Kuiper from Washington.