Who is General Oleksandr Sirsky, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces?
Oleksandr Sirsky, 58, has been commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Army since 2019, after leading military operations in eastern Ukraine in the face of a pro-Russian separatist offensive in 2014.
He was born in 1965 in the USSR, in the Vladimir region, today in Russia. Like many high-ranking soldiers of his generation, he completed his military studies at the Higher Combined Arms Command School in Moscow. Since the 1980s, it has been deployed in Ukraine, then a republic of the USSR.
At the fall of the Soviet Empire, he did not return to Russia, he joined the ranks of the brand new army of the newly independent Ukraine, and continued his studies at the National Defense University in Kiev. In the 2000s, he commanded 72E A mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army, based in Bila Tserkva, about a hundred kilometers south of Kyiv. He was promoted to General in 2009, then in 2013 he participated in the development of cooperation with NATO.
When, in 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and then launched a separatist conflict in the east of the country, he became one of the leaders of the operation to prevent Moscow from taking control of the entire Donbas. He had to coordinate a difficult retreat from the town of Debaltseve, an important railway junction, in early 2015, where the Ukrainians faced a number of forces.
Two years later, he became commander of all operations in the east, where the front line was now frozen. The war there then turned into a low-intensity conflict and would remain so until the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022.
He is credited with some of Ukraine’s major victories over the Russian army in the past two years. He oversaw the defense of Kiev at the start of the Russian offensive. In early April 2022, a few days after the Russians withdrew from the Kyiv region, Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded him the title of “Hero of Ukraine”, the highest national honor.
Six months later, in the autumn of 2022, it was still Oleksandr Syrskyi who was in charge when the Ukrainian army ‘delivered another insult to Moscow by chasing an aggressor from the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of Ukraine. However, the General could not become a national icon. According to a December 2023 survey, 48% of respondents said they didn’t even know Mr. Sirsky, who rarely makes headlines like MM. Zaluzny and Zelensky.
Not very impressive, Oleksandr Sirsky is not an office man according to his services. The military easily broadcasts pictures of them even in the trenches, armed and wearing helmets, shaking hands with soldiers or laughing with them. Some criticize his approach, which they see as too similar to that of the generals of the USSR, and accuse him of being aloof.
Very discreet about his personal life, he is married and the father of two sons, according to an army spokesperson.
