Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Syrskyi attends an in interview with Reuters in Kharkiv region
Factbox-Five facts about Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's new army chief
Reuters: Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who has led Ukraine's ground forces since 2019, was promoted to commander of the armed forces on Thursday as the war with Russia nears its third year. He replaces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.
Here are some facts about Syrskyi, already a key Ukrainian figure throughout Russia's full-scale invasion.
EARLY YEARS
Syrskyi was born in July 1965 in Russia's Vladimir region, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He has lived in Ukraine since the 1980s. Like many people of his age in Ukraine's armed forces, he studied in Moscow - at the Higher Military Command School - among peers who have since become Russian commanders, graduating in 1986 and serving for five years in the Soviet Artillery Corps. Some military analysts believe his battlefield tactics reflect his hierarchical Soviet training.
THE SNOW LEOPARD
Syrskyi became head of Ukraine's land forces in 2019. He had previously commanded Ukrainian troops fighting a Moscow-backed insurgency in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in 2014, and was given the call sign "Snow leopard".
BIGGEST VICTORIES
Some of Ukraine's biggest victories of Russia's full-scale invasion were overseen by Syrskyi. He led the successful defence of the capital Kyiv in the early months and was named a Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest honour, in April 2022. In July 2022, Syrskyi planned and executed a lightning counteroffensive that pushed Russian troops away from the city of Kharkiv and retook swathes of land to the east and southeast.
BAKHMUT
Early last year, Syrskyi led Ukraine's defence of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed in one of the bloodiest battles of the war so far. Some military analysts questioned whether fighting for a ruined city was worth so many dead and wounded. Syrskyi said Ukraine's dogged defence of Bakhmut had damaged Russia's overall war effort by tying down the Wagner mercenary group.
TROOP MORALE
Syrskyi says his priority is the morale of his troops, whom he is regularly pictured visiting at the front. He has told Western media that he sleeps four-and-a-half hours a night and relaxes by going to the gym. Syrskyi is married and has two sons.
In World
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Russia has supplied air defense missile systems to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops to support Russia's war efforts against Ukraine, a top South Korean official said Friday.
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Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit Taipei's three remaining diplomatic allies in the Pacific on a trip starting at the end of the month, his office said on Friday, but the government declined to give details on U.S. transit stops.
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Russia is ready to consider any "realistic" peace initiative on the conflict in Ukraine which takes into account Russia's own interests and the situation on the ground, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
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China is willing to conduct active dialogue with the United States based on the principles of mutual respect and promote the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said on Friday.
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