even more important topics, even more top guests: foreign experts, inclusion from abroad, about ukraine, the world, the front, society, and also feedback, you can express your opinion on the bad day with the help of a phone survey, turn on and tune in, verdict with serhii rudenko, every weekday from 20 to 22 at espresso. after a few weeks. expectations, president volodymyr zelensky eventually replaced the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. general valery zaluzhnyi resigned after a meeting with the president, which seemed to be friendly. the new commander-in-chief colonel-general oleksandr syrsky was appointed. before that, he was the commander of the ground forces and is considered close to the president. what does the replacement of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces mean. what to expect from general syrsky at the head of the armed forces of ukraine and how it can affect...

the course of the war with russia, and also what are valery zaluzhny's prospects now? we will try to answer all these questions in our svoboda live special channel, my name is sashko shevchenko, and we are about to start, but before that i ask you to like this broadcast, thus more people will be able to join it. well, let's start by listening to what ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy actually said when he announced his decision. we are listening. i am grateful to general zaluzhny for two years of protection. i am grateful for every victory we achieved together, and thanks to all ukrainian soldiers who are heroically fighting this war. i offered general zaluzhny to be in the team of the ukrainian state in the future. i will be grateful for his consent. today i decided to renew the leadership of the armed forces forces of ukraine. dear people, from today to the leader.

a new management team is joining the armed forces of ukraine. i want the vision of the war to be the same for our soldiers in the robot or military unit and for the general staff and the adjutant. everyone whose experience will now serve to renew the armed forces is carefully selected. i had dozens of conversations with commanders of various levels. in particular, today i spoke with brigadier generals andrii. natov, mykhailo drapaty, igor skibyuk, and colonels pavel palisa and vadym sukharevskyi. all of them are considered on leadership positions in the army and will serve under the leadership of the most experienced ukrainian commander, combat commander, colonel-general oleksandr syrskyi. he has successful defense experience, conducted the kyiv defense operation. he has yes... and successful

experience of the offensive of the kharkiv liberation operation. i appointed colonel-general syrsky, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine. well , valery zaluzhnyi, the head himself, reacted and explained his resignation on social networks, his post says the following, i will quote: the task of 2022 are different from the tasks of 2024, so everyone must change and... adapt to new realities as well, to win together too. as soon as we met with the supreme commander, an important and serious conversation, a decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategies. end of quote. thus, valery zaluzhnyi, the former head of the armed forces of ukraine, wrote about his resignation. we'll now discuss what this might mean, primarily militarily, as a full-scale russian invasion continues and... it's important to understand how

rocking at the head of the asu will affect the front. for this purpose, we invited oleksandr musienko, the head of the military-legal research center, to our ether. mr. oleksandr, good evening. good evening. let's start with the main thing: what does this kind of rocking at the head of the armed forces mean from a military point of view? i think that this will really mean a bit of a change in approaches, a strategic vision for the further use of troops. it is clear that the tasks now do not... change, they remain as they were, at least we understand very well that now we need to repel enemy attacks , russian troops are now advancing in the east and our forces are holding defenses there, and in principle the same is true in the south, and now we face a task, well, a combined one, i think that it is both difficult and difficult, because what valery zaluzhnyi , the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, spoke and wrote about, i think that it refers to the fact that today...

today the challenges are combined as follows: i will simply list what challenges are currently facing the ukrainian army, respectively, the military leadership and new the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine and the syrian colonel-general, well, the first thing is to go through these one and a half to two months, which will be very difficult at the front, because especially before the russian elections, russia will try to advance, actively advance, even, perhaps, even a little more than now we see offensive actions, especially in two directions, kupyanskyi and avdiivskyi, and avdiivka. second, after that it is clear that the enemy, well, let's say, will have an offensive decline. activity, accordingly, there are prospects of what, under the condition of our support partners and supplies to prepare for possible local tactical offensive actions, which may end with an operational breakthrough in certain areas of the front. the third is all that

is combined in the fact that we are now in such a phenomenon as a war of attrition, attrition warfare, or a war of attrition. and these are all the difficulties that exist, i.e. in this war of attrition, we also need to conduct combined operations, and these are the challenges , the tasks that are set, to be ready for both defense and offensive, within the framework of what this must be carried out in combination and within the framework of what, let's say this, we usually count on a positive decision of the united states regarding aid, i hope it will be 60 billion, and by the way, if you will allow me, i will just add that... literally recently it became it is known that the us senate voted for a kind of simplified procedure for considering a separate bill to allocate aid to ukraine, israel and taiwan, separately from the issues of the border with mexico ; approval of aid to ukraine,

please continue, let's hope that it will really end positively for us, we would really like to, and these are all the challenges that exist today, and i know a few things. or about general syrsky, and my experience there, communication with officers, with soldiers, and in general, gave me, let's say, the opportunity to form an impression about this general, and i can say that he is a general who supports active maneuver warfare, active maneuver warfare , including offensive actions, that is, it is, well, compared to the united states, syrian it's like paton, they had times. world war, roughly so, and what does it mean? i just happened to read the first reviews, so to speak, on social networks about the appointment of syrsky, of course, these reviews are completely unrepresentative and do not reflect the full picture of views, views on what kind of

head asyrsky can be, in fact, now in the comments before this broadcast, they are already writing what they think about oleksandr syrskyi, i will ask the question in such a way that you know about his... reputation, so to speak, that allegedly his operations were, led to heavy losses, even if compared with the same, with other commanders, well, this is a difficult question , because you understand, any offensive operation, unfortunately, it is combined with losses, that is, well, whatever -what offensive actions, they can involve losses, now the question is the level of these losses and the assessment of these losses, as far as i know, in those operations that were carried out, these were the kyiv and kharkiv operations, which were directly carried out, well, under the command, of course, by the commander and in agreement with the president, well, he managed directly syrskyi

, they were quite quick, quite rapid, well , of course, unfortunately, there were losses, but, well, let's put it this way, i don't think it was... it's hard to say, because each loss - it's a tragedy, you understand, but it's not what i see a lot of people talking and writing about now, that the butcher and so on. as for the bakhmut operation, the defensive one, which was also managed by osuv hortytsia led by syrskyi, well , as far as i know, it was not an exclusive initiative, it was a decision of the supreme the commander-in-chief to receive bakhmut, whether it was right or wrong, we will see. in the future, and we will obviously understand this, because there are different ones, someone says that it was worth protecting the troops and preparing for the offensive and withdrawing from bakhmut, but there is still the winning approach, that it was necessary to destroy the wagnerites and the russian troops in bakhmuti, that is why i can tell you

that if you listen, you can hear different reviews about each general, about everyone who fights, about everyone who conducts offensive operations, you will always hear that it... meant losses, that it led to losses, unfortunately, war is such a thing that would, well, unfortunately, of course, we will continue to discuss the actual , which the media wrote about, and i also wrote a lot about it... i have to emphasize that officially there was very, very little information about why the hard worker could be dismissed, when it would happen, and today we are actually only talking officially that it really happened and this decree was signed, but among those reports, in particular, in respectable foreign media, it was said that the views of zelensky and zaluzhnyi could really differ on certain operations, the bakhmut operation, in particular, was also mentioned. mr. oleksandr, let's talk about something. volodymyr zelenskyi has already announced that

oleksandr syrskyi started his new powers today, how fast will this transition really be , how much time will he need, so to speak, to take over from general zaluzhnyi, and how is this transition, how much can he occupy, can he influence the events at the front? i think it will be as fast as possible, actually, because, well, again, syrsky only. the front arrived obviously, and i think that first of all, at least about what is happening, the more he was in charge of the ground forces, which is the largest type of army that is involved in all directions, and at least he is well informed exactly what is happening on these parts of the front, this is the first point, the second point, which applies to all matters and in general, well, of course, it will take some time, but i think that it's two or three days, that is, there, well, it's for the transfer of cases and that's it, and they're moving on. because in the conditions of war , one cannot afford for the military command to,

let's say , drag it out for a long time, for a long time, and the next moment, i would rather say, you know, now it's interesting how quickly we will or will not see something practical directly on the battlefield from the point of view of changing the commander-in-chief, and there, i think, it is planned to change the entire top of the general staff, not just for a reason, that is... there will still be the appointments are appropriate, the president has already said that he held appropriate consultations with the candidates who can take up positions there, so i think that it will be, of course, well, it can all drag on for a few days, maybe less, and that's it, and then we'll be , i don't think that we will immediately see any directly drastic changes, radical, because the situation, but it will be very interesting to watch the... time of action, how we will come out in defense and how we will be, and the most important thing will be in april-may, what

will be further actions when the enemy reduces offensive activity. this is exactly what i wanted to ask you about. in his address, volodymyr zelenskyi says that this year 2024 should be decisive for ukraine, and general valery zaluzhnyi also admits this in his post, where he says that on purpose, compared to ... 2022 and 2024 required changes in approaches, what should we really expect from the new head of the committee and from 2024, or shall we say so, it would be correct to assume that zelensky will expect some concrete results that he probably did not see from the hard-working, i will tell you this , on at the beginning of this year, we went into what the situation was, in particular, what could have led to the dismissal. general zaluzhno. at the beginning of the year there were two approaches. the first approach, which consisted

in the fact that ukraine should be on strategic defense for almost the entire year of 2024, and then prepare, perhaps for the 25th year, in order to be ready for some kind of offensive. strictly speaking, the first approach. the second approach is that ukraine should prepare to launch an offensive. no operation of at least a local level in order to so that, in particular, our partners see that we continue the fight, because you understand, the advantages of defense are that it is really possible, which , by the way, will be done, regardless of what happens next, but it may happen that the world will see it, our partners will see that the positional war is decreasing in intensity and, accordingly, the scenario is moving towards freezing the conflict. and won't the change of zaluzhnyi here play this same role in the eyes of the western

partners? no, i think it seems to me, judging by the changes that have taken place, that general zaluzhny was exactly a supporter of the strategy staying on the defensive, this is my opinion, from what it seems to me, and syrskyi, he will be ready to carry out certain offensive actions, well, again, you understand, on the condition that there will be support from our partners? and it is risky, but i will tell you that many people in the west say, despite everything, that ukraine will have to prepare to carry out at least local offensive operations, so that the west will also see that we have not come to terms with the fact that this is a positional war , which can drag on for years and the rest will be a freeze of the conflict, that's it too a very important point, it is very risky, of course, but in war it is difficult without risk. in his address, volodymyr zelenskyi said, in particular, that it is necessary to change the approaches to rotation and mobilization, and

we had to hear unconfirmed information about this from certain ukrainian sources. their media about the alleged views of zaluzhny and zelensky on mobilization, how many people and how they also differ, i suggest now to listen to the direct speech of president zelensky and discuss it after that. every soldier, every sergeant and every officer, who sees the front, understands what decisions are needed, significantly greater technological efficiency of the army's actions, rebooting the generalship. staffs of all levels must know and feel the front as well as soldiers at ground zero. the combat teams of this war, the commanders from scratch, must implement their special experience at the level of the entire army, in leadership. currently, the defense force of ukraine is almost a million people who were called up to

protect our state, as of today, most of them... have not experienced the front like the minority who are actually on the front line, is actually fighting, this means that a different approach is needed, in particular to rotation, a different approach to front management, a different approach to mobilization and recruiting, all of which will give more respect to the soldier and return clarity to actions in war. i would like to remind you that oleksandr musienko is in touch with us. military expert, mr. oleksandr, we heard what volodymyr zelensky said, what does this tell you, should we expect any changes in the approaches to mobilization? and i think that now it was not even about mobilization, something has been said, said about first of all the condition inside, and very rightly so, because you know, there are a lot of

nuances that need to be really changed and corrected, and what it's about is that the rotation... in what sense should happen, that those that who were on the front line and those who are now officers who left the front line there from the company commander, the commander of this brigade battalion and so on, they can take certain positions, you see, for example, among those who the president mentioned, for example , commander of the 93rd kholodny yar brigade, which is quite shows itself well at the front and approaches in the same way, so obviously the rotation... is that those who lead and are good commanders and approach from below, they should go to the leadership in order to change this actually now the system in the armed forces, seeing in my experience, what needs to be changed, having learned it from combat experience, this is an important aspect, and those who are in the rear, they can start to replace those who are in the front,

that is, that is about it, well i, of course, it does not exclude mobilization , which ultimately continues in ukraine. is related to the replacement of the head, that is, is it possible to assume that the zaluzhny allegedly did not agree with the fact that it is necessary to rotate those who are in the body and those who are now at zero? i think i think look i think actually ah no not really i think it's just the approach and the strategy of the new commander in chief and plus i think it's something that's been brewing that is, these are certain processes that were discussed, what was informed about, that. what was possibly reported to the president, i think that these are already such new approaches that will try to apply, and plus technology, this is a very important moment that can be combined with the signing of the decree on the creation of unmanned systems forces, because what makes this moment important, it is important because now certain technological solutions can reduce the number of necessary people in

a certain area of ​​the front , in a firing position , etc., now it already applies , commander-in-chief zaluzhnyi also spoke about this, and absolutely everyone is of the same mind here, i see in this matter that drones, aerial drones, ground drones and surface drones, must perform more tasks, there should be more of them, and they should reduce the burden directly on the infantrymen, who in difficult conditions can be in a firing position in a trench, and who, sorry, it is difficult to advance somewhere, because enemy russians fly over them. drones , so, strictly speaking, we have to apply these approaches and the transition to technologization and transformation, and i think it's about heredity, that is, this is what the chief... chief of staff zaluzhny, general valery zaluzhny, and now it is already being transmitted new to the commander-in-chief, that is, it will have a development. and let's stop

at the mobilization, there were reports in the media , again i emphasize that they are not confirmed, but if we assume that it is true, that zaluzhny allegedly told zelenskyi, actually spoke at a meeting of the verkhovna rada's defense committee about that it is necessary to mobilize as many as possible... i can't say more that he needs as many recruits to wage war as many would perhaps not want to call up, would not want to take on some political responsibility, or whether the deputies, whether it is zelensky himself, do you allow that there are really any disagreements about how to mobilize and how much people should be mobilized, i do not rule out, but i do not rule out that it could really be the case, we have also heard it publicly in press conferences, yes, but it seems to me that it could have been just a question of provision, understanding of aid, i understand, and everyone should

realize that there is a certain amount of 500 thousand or less, it is not simultaneous, it cannot be done simultaneously and it is not realistic , it is stretched in time, but it is necessary to provide for funding and funds, and of course, which i think these remarks were about in the first place. provision, i.e., that one must have finances, and now, perhaps, when the issue will be resolved with american help, fortunately we received 50 billion from the european union, but this issue of funding is also provided, it is very important, and this, to things, one more approach, that is , we must also understand that we now have such realities, when in the end the fighters receive security, receive a salary, and... quite often it happens that for the funds that they received from their salary, they buy something for themselves, or they ask volunteers or people to just help buy something, but i

think that this is also one of the issues that needs to be solved, that is, on the one hand, we need immobilization for additional staffing, i don't know about the numbers, i'm not ready to say 500,000, well, the president announces what decision will be made now, it's also difficult to say, but we need to... but take care of those who are now the same, so it's a task of course funds, i think that it was because of funds that serious disagreements arose. general zaluzhnyi spoke at the briefing, it is the task, well , actually the task of the government, the task of the military , to calculate how many weapons are needed, give me weapons, give me people, and i will fight, it seems like the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces, general zaluzhnyi, said, and here in basically right. well, that's how it is, but as far as provision and funds are concerned, i think that certain questions and cautions arose in this regard, and therefore it seems to me that

there were these disagreements. we will return to the question of mobilization, but now i want to inform our viewers about the last one president zelensky announced the latest news about the exchange of prisoners between ukraine and russia, 100 soldiers returned home, as he says. president zelenskyi, and it is alleged that the majority returned home to the defenders of mariupol, mr. oleksandr, do you see any possible connection, such, perhaps the president's office knew that such an exchange was being prepared and somehow wanted to connect these events informationally, or is it some kind conspiracy theory, no, no, well, in terms of what you mean, that the president's decision could cause some outrage about the dismissal and... all the more, you understand what the situation is, general zaluzhny behaves with dignity in this situation, and in

principle, he wrote and distributed the photo, i think it is also an appeal to the people he is addressing, what should not be done, well, let's say, no such sharp hands on this matter, it seems to me, at least that's how i perceived it, or so... it should be submitted, that is, to retire in a dignified manner as an officer to thank everyone, and we thank him, well, that is absolutely it, it speaks of the greatness of a person, of her dignity, about her honor, and that's why it seems to me that this was all leveled, plus , you know, the fact that this issue was discussed, and you know, how it first arose, caused a shock, you know, when you find out some news, even tragic , at first it leads you... into shock, just into shock, and then even to something so sad you already start to get used to it, that is, you already accept it, so it may be bad for someone, but you accept it well... in

the last two years, ukrainians know better than anyone how does it work, yes, absolutely , mr. oleksandr, in fact, taking this opportunity, i would like to remind you that the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi really reports that the exchange took place, i will now give a few details, so volodymyr zelenskyi writes about it on his social networks , i will quote, another 100 ukrainians at home, in ukraine, the national guard, border guards, the armed forces, the majority, the defenders of mariupol, thanked the team, the driver volodymyr zelenskyi and says that thank you for the result the country needs, depending on how it unfolds, new events will appear , new news on how this exchange took place, we will also follow, and mr. oleksandr, i would like to ask you to comment on the last issue, which is actually a serious issue, and since the possibility of the resignation of the meritorious officer was reported, many from different sources, with varying

degrees of anonymity and authority. but nevertheless, the issue of zaluzhnyi's resignation was very much present in the information space, and taking this into account, don't you get the impression that zelenskyi and zaluzhnyi had different visions, and now he has been fired and his successor syrskyi will be more look around to see how independent he can be in his decisions, whether he will be too loyal to the president and his vision of waging war, especially considering that volodymyr zelenskyi does not have military experience, military education, and so on, well, many leaders in the world, who fought, did not have military experience and education, this is how it turns out, the presidents are civilians, but they are the commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief is fully responsible for the decisions that are made, despite the fact that there are commanders-in-chief, he was a general industrious, now there will be colonel-

general syrskyi, in spite of everything... full responsibility for what is happening is primarily borne by the supreme commander, this is how it is arranged, and therefore, in spite of everything, no matter what happens, he will not bear responsibility for all decisions , for victories and defeats, well , of course we want only victories, so that we get only victories, and as for the general staff, which will be, of course he will work out decisions, well, i think that judging by the fact that has already been suggested. that is, the president of in any case, he will listen with his head to what has already been proposed, regarding the main positions, they have already agreed, i think, well, this is already obvious, regarding certain positions, regarding the fact that certain offensive actions are possible in the future and revival and changes now in the armed forces, in the structure, the main messages, i think they have already agreed, thank you very much for joining our broadcast and commenting on the resignation of valery zaluzhnyi from the position of the head of the armed forces, i

would like to remind you that... about the fact that this resignation can to take place, it was reported quite a long time ago, and it finally happened. let me remind you that the successor was oleksandr syrskyi, and we actually discussed and analyzed this whole situation with oleksandr mosienko, the head of the military-legal research center. thank you. on the eve of a few days ago, the reuters agency talked to the military at zero, and when it was not yet known that valery zaluzhnyi... was retiring and the reuters agency asked the military what they thought about such a prospect that zaluzhnyi will resign. let 's hear what they had to say then. all think that in the 22nd year we had some success there in the zaporizhzhia direction, in the kherson direction, and then in the 23rd year it became, this does not mean that general zaluzhny managed the troops poorly. every person should understand that the state of ukraine is fighting, you see, not just the people who we have been fighting for

literally two years now. in two weeks, two years, not just those that we left voluntarily, the whole of ukraine is at war, and every man who is written or thinks that he lives in ukraine must pass, this is such an irreversible situation here, he must go through it and all the people are tired, depending on who his shift is, but overall he suits us well enough, ugh. ugh , then the hard worker suits you, and i think that this dismissal will be inappropriate now, because commanders are not changed on the battlefield, before dismissing someone from a position, especially such an important position, you need to make sure who will replace this person , and how he sees the further course of these.