Lyudmila Zhernovskaya01:39, 01/31/24
Two candidates are being considered for the position of Commander-in-Chief.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told Valery Zaluzhny on January 29 that he had decided to dismiss him from the post of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, writes The Economist .
According to some journalists, the general was offered the post of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, but he refused. The commander of the Ground Forces, Alexander Syrsky, and the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, are being considered as candidates for the role of commander-in-chief.
The publication notes that Syrsky is one of the most experienced officers in the army; he was the “operational brain” of two of the most outstanding victories of 2022: near Kiev and in the Kharkov region. “But his hard-line approach to warfare made him unpopular within the military,” they write.
Budanov, on the other hand, takes a “much more unconventional and untested” approach to command; he has not yet led a large army.
“Some believe that he refused this job at the last minute. A close colleague insists that General Budanov did not apply for the place of General Zaluzhny, but he also had no right to refuse a military post,” the journalists write.
(C)UNIAN 2024
Budanov is doing a reasonable job at the SBU, even though imho he talks too much, when tight lips would be the safer attitude. But afaics he ain’t qualified for leading the AFU. That takes an expert with much more military experience. I hope that this is fake news and that Zelensky ain’t that wrongheaded about what it takes to make the most important military decisions during wartime. This ain’t a position where training on the job is acceptable!