conversation, thank you all for being with us today, i wish you all a good evening, take care of yourself and your loved ones, goodbye sirskyi, instead of zaluzhnyi, president zelenskyi replaced the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, how it happened, we tell on the bbc live from london, i'm evgenia shytlovska. general valery zaluzhny commanded the ukrainian army for more than two years, the president thanked him, dismissed him and immediately announced the appointment of a new commander. about what may happen in the ukrainian military command such changes have been talked about for a long time. president zelensky announced, as he said, a reboot, and it actually happened. deserving was dismissed,

syrskyi was appointed in his place, but everything is in order. at first, such messages with the same photo appeared on social networks, from president zelensky, that he met with commander-in-chief valery zaluzhny, thanked him for his work and offered him to be in the team in the future. and from this it was already indirectly clear about the resignation. however, zaluzhny also informed about the meeting, wrote that the tasks of 2022 are different from the tasks of 2024, so everyone must change and adapt to... realities, and also the minister of defense rustem umerov also wrote: new approaches, new strategies are needed and thanked general zaluzhny, and half an hour after these messages, the president zelenskyy made a special address and told about the dismissal of zaluzhnyi from the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the appointment of oleksandr syrskyi in his place. listen. they spoke frankly today about what needs to change in the army. urgent changes. i suggested to general zaluzhny to be together in the future. in the team of the ukrainian state. i will be

grateful for his consent. today i decided to update the leadership of the armed forces of ukraine. it's not about the family name, and even more so, it's not about politics. this is about the system of our army, about management in the armed forces of ukraine and about involving the experience of combat commanders of this war. valery zaluzhnyi held the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine over for two years from july 2021 , it was zaluzhny who led the ukrainian army when russia started full-scale invasion, he was highly regarded by his western colleagues, giving him credit for preparing for the defense and for the first victories of ukraine, and when the counteroffensive last year did not produce the expected results, zaluzhny publicly explained why, in an interview article with the british edition of the economist, the fate of war, from the words zaluzhnyi depends on the position and supplies of the event, but a lot, as you can read between the lines, depends on the political leadership of ukraine. then immediately there were rumors

about the possible resignation of zaluzhnyi and him conflict with president zelenskyi, the president's team denied this information in every possible way, but the conflict deepened and the fact that opinion polls continued to record a drop in the president's rating and stable support for zaluzhnyi added fuel to the fire. at the end of january, zelensky summoned zaluzhnyi and informed him that he planned to fire him, but he never signed the decree. since then, zaluzhny still had time to publish his program column on cnn, in which he outlined his vision of the war and the plan for changes in the army for... the next six months, which this column showed about zaluzhnyi's strategy and the difference in approaches between him and president zelenskyi, professor of international security at the university of birmingham, stefan wolff, commented earlier on the bbc. in his latest essay, zaluzhny writes that advanced technologies, especially unmanned vehicles, are now playing a leading role. ukraine has been very successful in using drones both in the sky and at sea and... seeks to better integrate this into

ukraine's military doctrine, this will require better funding, greater flexibility and better school his ratings are higher than even zelensky's. more than 80% trust zuluzhno. zelensky is also not bad at 70, but there is a difference between their approaches, and this has to some extent led to reports of alleged disagreements between them. this is not only about personal rivalry, it is important to realize that, here and... it is about the difference in the vision of the general strategic direction of this war, in my opinion, the meritorious grealist to a greater extent understands better what is possible on the battlefield, while zelensky does more global statements about the return of all ukrainian territories, zaluzhny does not deny that it is possible and even desirable, but the difference between them concerns the methods and time during which it can be achieved. and we are in touch with the expert of the ukrainian future institute, ivan stupakut, as a visionary general. zaluzhnyi

regarding the war may have differed from president zelenskyi's vision from what was publicly announced. congratulations, congratulations studio, well , look, first of all, it is the politicians who see the political component. the military sees the military component, it is a tactic, it is a strategy, it's an offensive, it's people, it's logistics, and politicians see, they want to see a quick result, quite quick, but unfortunately, in this war , there are no quick results, and it is possible that this is exactly what caused a certain breakdown in the relationship between the president and the head of state armed forces and what do you think, why this replacement of the commander -in-chief of the armed forces took place right now, well, this story... it has been going on for a long time, already in december of 2023 it was reported, there were the first rumors that mr. zaluzhnyi might leave his post, but he did not leave precisely because of what was not there was no adequate replacement for his position , there was no adequate person, but now pantsyrsky , on the one hand, he is a person who knows the business,

knows the army, fights in one of the directions, he commands the weapons of the land forces, he is in the topic and in the material, so he can quickly with... to understand how to manage other directions, mr. zaluzhnyi did not leave the team, the president offered him to be there, to help with his advice, with some concrete actions, so i want to believe that mr. syrskyi will succeed in everything, well, a plus, a plus for what, he still commanded the defense of kyiv, and well, the military knows him, that is, he is not some new person who came from nowhere, and that is, he is familiar, understandable and perceptible, well, president zelensky invited... zuluzhny to stay , as he said, what do you think that what will zaluzhnyi do next, or will he remain in command? i want him to stay, i understand that it may be an option, as in the status of an adviser, maybe some full-time, freelance, maybe he will be in the armed forces, maybe he will be an adviser in

the office of the president, that is, i really want to believe, that his knowledge, his skills, they will be necessary and he will be interested in them. both politicians and the military, who have now been replaced, but the main question is who does mr. tsirskyi see as a replacement in certain directions, does he plan to replace them there, or does he plan to replace individual heads of military directions, units, units, connections, i.e. he has a crazy challenge now, i want him to cope, of course, please stay in touch with us, let's talk more about the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces, oleksandr syrskyi, colonel general. him 58 years old, that is, he is older than his predecessor, who is 50 years old. he was the commander of the ground forces and the commander of the eastern group of troops, he became famous thanks to the successful, according to experts , organization of the defense of kyiv immediately after the full-scale invasion of russia, general syrsky was one of the commanders

of the liberation operation kharkiv region. in the fall of 2022 , he will be awarded the title of hero of ukraine, and, as observers emphasize, syrskyi has good relations with president zelenskyi's office. in summer. last year, in an interview with the bbc, general syrsky called the advantage of the ukrainian military over the russian military the unity of the military leadership and the trust of the soldiers in each other. and the expert of the ukrainian institute of the future, ivan stupak, is in touch with us. how can a change of commander-in-chief at such a time during the war affect ukrainian defense? yes, look, what i want to see personally is that mr. syrsky has at least some plans for the future. development of the army, further optimization of the army, use of those reserves that are available, for example, there are many complaints about the fact that part of the military is in the rear, they do not fight, but receive a large salary, there is a certain injustice, i really want to believe that he will completely rework it,

will maximally implement technological means, tech, equipment, novice equipment, and again it is necessary to repeat myself, i did not have time to finish, because... it was mr. zaluzhnyi who recommended mr. zaluzhnyi as his successor, that is , this information is there, and it says a lot, that is, i think that he should quickly pick up management, command and not to lose the positions that we have now, because the russians, unfortunately, we must note, are very actively putting pressure on two main directions, although just recently there were 12 of these directions. and president zelenskyi said in his address that to the leadership of the armed forces... a new management team is acting, so how big changes in the military command can be expected in general? and we haven't seen it yet, but from the president's announcement, he says that there will be a team, he emphasized several times and the president's office emphasized that this is not an issue replacement of one person

, the last name zaluzhny was replaced by syrian, that is, it is not a way out of the situation, it is necessary to change the team, the vertical, so that people come who have a new vision or a modified vision or... a more advanced vision of the situation, and they, according to first, they can solve these issues and are ready to take responsibility for these decisions. thank you, ivan stupak, expert of the ukrainian institute of maibut. was with us on the air, therefore, president zelensky changed the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, appointed syrsky instead of zaluzhny, and in his address, regarding of this, the president spoke in general about changes in the command of the armed forces, in particular, the first commander of the newly created forces of unmanned systems will be appointed. in russia's war against ukraine , drones have become an important weapon for both sides, and the bbc's james waterhouse previously visited the kherson region to see which ones. there's just been shelling here,

when you're so close to the river that the front line runs through, you're always being watched by drones in the sky or the russians themselves, so you have to move fast, we've been invited to join the 11th brigade national guard of ukraine. not in the trench but in this room their specialty is strike drones simple cheap deadly its one of the defining weapons in this war we have just received word that there are several enemy fpvs taking off from a location we know from they fly out almost often, and we are flying there right now. the drone is launched and it flies to the territory occupied by russia.

a few kilometers later, artem finds his target - a drone control system used by a russian unit. it is hostile management system. the drone explodes on impact. for the first time, hitting the enemy or their equipment was more emotional than now. now it is. our ordinary business, work, everything. such search-and-destroy cycles helped push back the russians. but they are doing the same thing here, pushing life out of the streets of kherson. the celebration of the liberation of the city remained in the past. since then, many people have left here. russia. controls the left bank, the dnipro river looks calm, but the occupiers are constantly watching and striking. some

the ukrainian military crossed the river upstream, but this has not yet led to significant results. despite the fact that we are a few kilometers from the russian troops, here you can find the remains of civilization, for example, cafe oleksia, it creates a small oasis of normality, although , of course, its business is not very brisk. every day, well, and you don't know where exactly they will go, they can fly by me, and then we notice a hole from a shell fragment in his coffee machine. when alexei's clients leave,

they leave inscriptions on the wall of the coffee shop. savin writes: "we are not victorious." and although the russians are not going to come close, kherson hopes that he is right. so, let's go back to what we talked about earlier, president zelenskyi changed the commander-in-chief. zsu appointed syrsky instead of zaluzhnyi. oleksandr syrsky - colonel general. he was the commander of the ground forces and the commander of the eastern group of troops. he became famous thanks to the successful, according to experts, organization of the defense of kyiv after the full-scale invasion of russia and was one of the commander of the operation to liberate kharkiv oblast in the fall of 2022. president zelensky, announcing these changes, called syrsky the most experienced in... and you can read more about this on our website bbc.ua. see you tomorrow.

screensavers are added to expresso. zuluzhny was released. instead of him , budesivskyi, ukraine is simply raging with emotions, everyone writes their comments from a terrible betrayal, which simply borders on surrender tomorrow, to an adequate sober analysis and a proposal to see what he can achieve in this position we don't know where general syrskyi will be in the end, we don't know either, today

we have an unusual, special broadcast, at 18:30 the resignation of the general took place. zaluzhnyi, it was announced by president zelensky. we were supposed to start this broadcast with a long interview of oleksiy danilov, secretary of the national security and defense council. he refused, well, for various reasons, well, we understand what is happening there now. zelenskyi has already said that this is not about one general industrious, but about a reboot, well, in including the council of national security and defense, its secretary is this, let's say. yes , the power block, this project says velikiy lviv, we welcome all viewers of the tv channel, we start with our new location, a large studio, the largest platform for discussions in all of ukraine will be literally in half an hour, but at the beginning an important interview with, well, perhaps the most authoritative expert for of our viewers, vitaly portnyk in our, we called it, frankness room, we add

vitaly portnikova, journalist, writer, tv presenter, publicist, political commentator, is with us, mr. vitaly. good evening, good evening. how did you perceive the decision to retire valery zaluzhny, and to appoint a new commander of the armed forces of ukraine, oleksandr syrskyi. in such a short period of time, we have as many as two decisions, and maybe that's a good thing, because this place shouldn't be empty during the war, that's for sure. well, i don't think it was a sudden decision. you and i are talking about what could have happened. for several months in a row, several months in a row the leading world media wrote about the conflict between the leadership of the state and the military leadership of ukraine, and the only thing that always infuriated me was that these means of communication, which are connected to the authorities, the authorities themselves, always told us that it was all a lie,

that between the president and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces the forces have a wonderful relationship , that there is no perspective... the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces simply does not exist, you remember it all perfectly , i think, and this, i would say, this lack of real communication surprised me, remember that every person , which reported that volodymyr zelenskyy is going to make a decision on zaluzhny's resignation, it was obstructed, we were urged not to believe the leading western media, just as they were urged not to believe them when they... reported that there would be a major russian attack on ukraine, how could they know , where do they get such sources, they even make this up, and i wonder, here are all these people who have been claiming this for all these months, who have always been told that we use verified information, and usually the western media when they report such information, they also manage the information

they receive from verified sources who have an understanding of what they are talking about, and that there is nothing in this... what a tragedy, that a dialogue with society is needed, that the president of ukraine should say clearly and honestly about the real reasons that are connected with the need to change the military command, that it is impossible to pretend that everything is normal until the last moment, and then make such a decision. this is the problem, the fact that the president of ukraine, as the supreme armed forces of ukraine, has the absolute right, as an appointment, as well as the resignation of the chief of the armed forces of ukraine, no one else. did not argue, no one said, let's hold a referendum on the commander of the armed forces, this is the competence and responsibility of the president, and by the way, it is now the president's full competence and responsibility, because this is his first decision, an important personnel decision has been made, certainly not the last. resolution , we are establishing contact now with vitaly

porpnikov, because these are important things, we have some problems today. maybe you haven't seen it yet, so here we are broadcast, as valery zaluzhnyi said about it, he thanked, in fact, in the first days of the most difficult great war, we stood against a vile and strong enemy, we stood together, our battle continues and changes every day, the tasks of 2022 are different from the tasks. 2024, so everyone must change and adapt to the new realities as well, in order to win together. we just met with the supreme commander-in-chief, an important and serious conversation. a decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategies, i am grateful to everyone who is close to me, the general staff team, of the ministry of defense, to the president of ukraine. i am proud of everyone in the armed forces

of ukraine, who protect ukraine and the future. vitaly pornikov is back, continue, mr. vitaly. i spoke about the fact that this first decision is related to the change of military leadership during a high- intensity war. that all decisions are made by the military leadership of ukraine. both acting president of ukraine , oleksandr turchynov, and presidents petro poroshenko and volodymyr zelenskyi were adopted during a low-intensity war, and for by and large, one way or another, we did not know how effective the leadership of the military leadership of the country would be if a high-intensity war began, and in ukrainian society it is believed that it was an effective leadership, precisely because we are in a state that was not destroyed by the russian occupier, we remember goals. vladimir putin, we remember that he did not even manage to fulfill his wishes regarding the capture of the entire donetsk region and luhansk region, not to mention the breakthrough to kyiv. and now, for the first time, the president

is making a decision to change the military of the country's leadership in the conditions of a high- intensity war. oleksandr syrskyi, the first commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine , was appointed to this high position in such a difficult period, and you understand that this is why the head of our state will now bear personal responsibility for the effectiveness of the military leadership, because he made such a decision , precisely knowing these conditions in which the new commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine will work. when he chose valery zaluzhnyi, he did not, did not could imagine such conditions, it was a condition of an anti-terrorist operation, you remember, right? and that's why we can say that we were lucky in the choice of the president, he made the right choice then, without even imagining it. the conditions under which the new commander-in-chief, a person who was not well known in society at that time, can act, it must also be remembered that many hopes were associated with

the figure of general viktor muzhenko, you also remember that, and by the way , viktor muzhenko is a competent, strong military leader, one of the most, i would say, competent today in europe, we remember the role he played during the defense of kyiv, we remember that he was the first, even before valery zaluzhny said about it, to give an interview in his... it seems reasonable to him the bbc gave a clear description of these important things that vitaly portnikov is talking about, we are now establishing a connection, because really, when you remember what happened at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it was precisely these non-standard decisions that valery zaluzhnyi made, including those that allowed we should really win in the first year of the war, really cut off all these... supply channels, yes, but now the war is really turning into here and there , a certain logic can even be thrown out, now the war is turning into a more classical format, when there are two front lines

that are constantly and complicatedly moving, because really it is difficult to do, and syrsky is rightly called more of such a classic, yes, maybe this is the period when we need a classic, we will see, well, in the end, if we read. two posts of both zelenskyi and zaluzhnyi, they are quite so friendly, everyone said that we consulted, got together, they talked, changes are needed, there will be changes, so i want to believe that they really discussed these changes and they will only be for the better for the entire ukrainian people, for our positions in this war, will zaluzhny go into politics after all, or will politics come to him , mr. vitaly, what do you think, i think that in the near future we will not have politics in our lives, we will fly... it exists exclusively virtually, it exists in our heads, perhaps, by the way, among those people who are in the head, that there is a policy, president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi, but there is no policy, and we are with you

we don't know when it will be, if you ask me, but can there be politics quickly, maybe in the case of a truce between russia and ukraine, which will be reached under certain conditions, but the conditions will be unfavorable for ukraine, you understand , so look at the map of hostilities and ask yourself, what will happen if it is achieved... will we regain control over our territories, and will we succeed in achieving security, a guarantee of long-term security under the conditions that will arise as a result of such an armistice' me, and what will be the perspective then of the current government, maybe it will already be a policy that will come to completely different people, so this is an answer to the question, there is another answer to the question: there will be no truce, the war will continue, so when will it come to all of us? politics, well, maybe in 2027 , if it ends, maybe in 2034, i don't know when the war will end, and you don't know, the president doesn't know, nobody knows, so when we say politics will come to visit

whom.. here we have it, first of all, the war must go away from these guests, she is sitting in the guest house, nowhere he is not going to go, we are perfectly settled in our house with you, in fact he is already trying to drive us out of this house, and we need the war to be cleaned up, as long as there is war, there will be no politics, even if it is there in the heads of someone, even if someone is to look at sociology, this is a completely different story, there is no... there is no point in discussing such things in conditions when you and i do not know the military prospects, but we see what support valery zaluzhnyi has now, but even reading our comments, we see , as people actively write about what they like zaluzhnyi, it was a wrong decision and so on, and why are zaluzhnyi included in these sociological surveys, if he has never declared his political ambitions, because comparing a military man, a soldier and a politician

will always be for. military, especially in the situation in which we know and in which we are now, who needs it, mr. portnikov? well, the fact that there is trust in the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine and in general in the armed forces of ukraine seems absolutely logical to me, this is good, ugh, here, and i have been saying all this time that this trust must be used for the benefit of ukrainian society and that now, when this trust will be personal to... the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, his rating will increase, the rating of the person who approved the decision to resign will decrease. it's a pretty obvious process, i think, for you, right? as for the fact that whoever inserts the surname of general zaluzhny into sociology, well, that's how sociology works in general, it analyzes sympathy for popular people. i will remind you that in sociological polls was the surname of television actor volodymyr zelenskyi.

was not engaged in any political activity at all, but it was always interesting from a certain point, and what is the level of popularity of this person in politics, well, it is even less strange than inserting, well, actually, here is this cool comparison from vitaly portnikov, that zelensky is also from "appeared in the polls, and many, we were there for two or three months, until he said in the new year's address, it seems, that the new year's address is 18 years old. united states such two days very popular ones began to list the list

of generals, i can ... list them in israeli politics until the end of the broadcast, i think you understood what i said, the ukrainian elite will now look like this, there will be many generals, colonels, professional, the military, but by the way, you mentioned the generals, i was thinking of not picking up on this comment, but nevertheless , you know, one of the biggest criticisms of syrsky, which are now appearing on the internet, is that he was born in the russian federation , studied in moscow, yes, well, but it was... in the soviet union, it’s clear, and one of our commentators, i won’t quote exactly now, asked himself, he says, ask mr. vitaly, what would happen in israel if the israeli army was led by an arab by origin, i honestly don’t know , i have never researched this issue, but i understand that this is, you know, a head-on question, as they say, well , first of all, i want to remind you that this is not very fair in relation to general syrtsyky,

someone may not like it general. some liked it, but general syrsky liked us was absolutely fine when he was the commander of the ground forces of ukraine, when he participated in the liberation of kharkiv oblast. general tsirskyi suited us when he was the commander of the anti-terrorist operation, and we did not say that he graduated, that he was born in russia, did not reproach him for his place of birth and did not reproach him. him, he was not reproached for where he studied, i think that this is not very fair, because it seems to me that general syrsky, once again, honestly always proved that he serves ukraine, we can you discuss the issue of his military effectiveness, competence, this is a question for military experts, this is a question for people who were subordinates or the leadership of general sirtskyi, but to say...