Factbox: Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's new army chief
PHOTO CAPTION: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy listens to colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Ground Forces in the town of Izium recently liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during a counteroffensive operation, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region,Ukraine September 14, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
KYIV (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.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash and Yuliia Dysa; editing by Tom Balmforth and Jon Boyle)
