Row escalates in Ukraine over army chief's future

Over the past week, thousands in Kyiv and other cities have taken to the streets to protest against Fedorov's removal and demand the dismissal of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces.Army veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi said in a social media post that if Syrskyi is not dismissed by Friday and Federov reinstated, "we will begin an open-ended nationwide protest". Ukraine is waiting, anxiously, for a resolution. Over the weekend, Ukrainian media reported that Zelensky was consulting ministers and generals in an effort to resolve the crisis.Amid a welter of rumours, the general staff was forced to deny reports that Gen Syrskyi was about to be – or even had already been – sacked. Another report suggested that Fedorov had refused an offer to return to a different position in government.Kyrylo Budanov, head of the president's office, urged Ukrainians to remain calm."The situation surrounding the latest internal changes has caused strong emotions," he wrote on Tuesday.With the noisy calls of angry protesters echoing around the tight confines of Ivana Franka Square, within earshot of the presidential palace, Budanov said the government was taking note."I understand people who express their position…..The position of society has been heard."With large numbers of demonstrators directing their anger towards Gen Syrskyi – seen by many as representing outdated Soviet-era military doctrines, Budanov, a former head of military intelligence, warned people "not to hate anyone"."The enemy is closely monitoring our every internal dispute and is waiting for us to start fighting among ourselves," he wrote."The work is under way. There will be results."On Monday, the beleaguered but usually silent 60-year-old Gen Syrskyi hit back against his critics, publishing a long defence of his record and urging readers not to focus on his widely-reported rivalry with 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov.Despite Zelensky's claim last week that the two men could not even bear to sit in the same room, Syrskyi said it had been a surprise to learn that he had a conflict with the minister."I perceived our relationship as a working one," he wrote in an op-ed for the Militarny website."If I offended anyone, Mykhailo Albertovych [Fedorov], I'm sorry."The general said the issues of military contracts, procurement and mobilisation currently being aired in the press and boiled down to pithy slogans on pieces of cardboard carried aloft by protestors were a great deal more complicated than most people realised."Decisions on which people's lives depend are not made with slogans," he said. "Real work, not the public drama surrounding it, wins the war."Like the ousted defence minister, the commander-in-chief avoided directly personal attacks, but the object of much of his criticism was pretty clear."Presentations should not turn into self-representations," he wrote, in a thinly veiled swipe at Federov's long, detailed news conference last week."Behind each slide there should be a document, a budget and a procedure," the general went on. "Otherwise, instead of a decision the army gets disappointment."Syrskyi's problem however is that most Ukrainians, especially the younger ones, seem to trust Federov's analysis of what needs to change in order for Ukraine to win the war, not the general's.More than anyone, Federov is seen by many as driving innovation in the military, gradually improving Ukraine's chances of beating back its numerically superior enemy."Right now, the war is changing, so we need new ideas and a new structure," 44-year-old law company employee Tetiana Makarenko told me at one of the protests over the weekend."It's often said that a small Soviet army can't defeat a big Soviet army. It's time to change the mindset and start the new type of war."