this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
64 points (98.5% liked)

World News

57139 readers
1999 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Ukraine’s commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskyi is widely expected to lose his job amid signs that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has bowed to pressure from protesters and will reshuffle the army’s top leadership.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 27 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Personal impression:

Everyone knew there was a problem with Oleksandr Syrskyi for a while. How had a tendency to micromanage troops, often causing needless losses by commanding an attack by some unit which was exhausted enough so it could only defend. Maybe a Russian position was taken for a while, but the unit was super exhausted and Russians took it back. This seems to have earned him the nickname "Butcher".

It also seems that Syrskyi liked to build a hierarchy of command based on personal loyalty, and didn't like people bringing him bad news or criticism.

Due to his high rank, however, he was immune to criticism from low-ranking people. It took a big dispute with the former defense minister (Myhkailo Fedorov) to bring attention to the problem. This exposed the issue because Fedorov liked to govern by the numbers, and is capable of providing detailed explanations for his actions. He had a reputation of not doing things for personal or whimsical reasons.

A point came when the MoD of Ukraine and the chief of the army could not meet at the same table. When the government resigned, the defense minister was free to explain what he thought about things. So finally there is enough momentum to dislodge Syrskyi, and I think it does them good.