Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief, is leading the fight against a much larger Russian army. Despite recent setbacks and Russia’s superior resources, Syrskyi remains confident in Ukraine’s resilience. In an exclusive interview, he revealed how Ukraine is countering with quality over quantity, using advanced drones and anticipating the arrival of F-16 jets. With the goal of reclaiming all occupied territories, including Crimea, Syrskyi is determined to outsmart Russian forces while preserving Ukrainian lives. The outcome of Europe’s biggest war since 1945 hangs in the balance, with Syrskyi at the helm.
Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, seated atop a pile of ammo crates at a covert military facility, remained silent when asked when Ukraine will receive its eagerly anticipated shipment of F-16 fighter jets. Allies including the Dutch have stated they will be there shortly. This week? Or perhaps August? “I know. But I can’t tell you about it, unfortunately,” he said, with an apologetic grin, as gulls squawked nearby.
Ukraine’s new supreme leader is Syrskyi. He has the difficult challenge of taking down a larger Russian force. After launching his special military operation for 2.5 years, Vladimir Putin admits the Russians have far more resources. Everything is more plentiful there: soldiers, infantry fighting vehicles, and tanks. According to him, their initial invading force of 100,000 soldiers has increased to 520,000, with a target of 690,000 warriors by the end of 2024. The numbers about Ukraine have not been disclosed reports the Guardian.
“When it comes to equipment, there is a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3 in their favor,” he said. Since 2022 the number of Russian tanks has “doubled” – from 1,700 to 3,500. Artillery systems have tripled, and armored personnel carriers went up from 4,500 to 8,900. “The enemy has a significant advantage in force and resources,” Syrskyi said. “Therefore, for us, the issue of supply, the issue of quality, is really at the forefront.”
This dominance of man over machine explains what has happened recently in the battlefield. The military forces of Ukraine have been progressively regressing since the fall of last year. An early action he took upon taking over in February 2024 (he replaced Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who is currently Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK) was to order his forces to leave the eastern city of Avdiivka. The withdrawal followed a six-month lapse in US armament supplies.
There have been more lately. But the Russians are still capturing villages and farmland in the eastern Donbas, blasting a route ahead with airdropped bombs. They have overrun the area northwest of Avdiivka, toward Pokrovsk, the military town, and have besieged Chasiv Yar, a community perched on a hill. Russian soldiers overran the city of Vovchansk in May, opening a new front in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine was expecting this assault. It seemed incapable of stopping it.
In his first interview as the head of the armed forces with a foreign publication, an exclusive one with the Guardian, Syrskyi acknowledged that the situation was “extremely difficult.” “The aggressor from Russia targets our positions from multiple angles,” he declared. Could we stop Russia’s advance? “Yes, of course. First of all, it depends on our brave soldiers, our officers,” he said. Quite frequently “resilient and heroic” Ukrainian units defeated bigger enemy groups, he said.
He gave the example of Russia’s most recent effort to take control of Kharkiv and the nearby province of Sumy. In Syrskyi’s words, “It failed.” The fighting went on, but he said that Putin’s plan to establish a “so-called security corridor” close to Russia’s border and the Belgorod area had been blocked. What about the rumors that Moscow was preparing a second attack on the Zaporizhia region in the south? “We can give them a good response” if it occurs, he answered.
In general, Syrskyi tried to contextualize recent failures. The gradual triumphs Russia was achieving, he said, were “tactical”—local gains as opposed to an “operational” breakthrough like taking control of a significant city. He declared, “In theory, the enemy has not advanced very far.” According to him, the frontline spanned 3,700 km. “977km” of it, or “twice the length of the border between Germany and France,” was the scene of ongoing combat.
On the other hand, Russia’s achievements came at an incredible human cost. According to Syrskyi, the Kremlin has suffered “three times” as many casualties as Ukraine, and “even more” in some areas. He emphasized, “Their number of killed is much bigger.” Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in February that 31,000 Ukrainian service members had passed away since 2022. Could Syrskyi provide an updated number? Refusing, he explained that losses were “sensitive” and a subject Moscow could use against them.
Syrskyi compared his methods of combat to those of Russian generals, who are infamous for sacrificing a great deal of men in order to obtain “100 to 200 meters.” “It’s critical that we preserve the lives of our warriors. We don’t fight to the death to protect ruins, remarked Syrskyi. He declared that he would not throw his forces into “futile meat assaults” or “achieve goals at any cost.” It was occasionally required to relocate to “more favorable positions.”
Despite doubts regarding Ukraine’s chances of winning hands-down, Syrskyi pointed to several encouraging advancements. The air defenses of Ukraine would be reinforced by F-16s. They would enable Kyiv to hit ground targets with greater accuracy and to combat Russian cruise missiles more successfully. But he emphasized that there were boundaries to what F-16s could accomplish. They were at risk of being shot down by Moscow, therefore they had to stay “40 km or more” back from the front line.
Russia boasted “very strong” air defenses and “superior aviation.” According to Syrskyi, this is the reason why Ukraine is using unmanned aerial systems more and more. It was testing “robotic ground systems,” or land robots that might transfer ammo or save a wounded soldier, in addition to using drones “very effectively.” The first-ever unmanned systems command was present. He declared, “We fight not by quantity but quality,” and added that drones were “just as important as artillery.”
According to him, the Ukrainian military forces were effectively striking deep within Russia with long-range kamikaze drones. They have targeted “roughly 200 critical infrastructure sites” thus far. These facilities, which included factories, ammunition depots, and fuel dumps, were all related to “military logistics.” By contrast, about one-third of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet had been sunk by sea drones that resembled speedboats. “It really became a trap for them and for some [vessels] a grave,” Sryskyi said.
He continued, saying that as a result of several Ukrainian attacks, the Kremlin had to “completely pull out” of the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Radar and rocket installations have been destroyed by drone and missile strikes. Destroying the Kerch road and rail crossing that links the captured peninsula with Russia is a major goal for the Ukrainians. Syrskyi refrained from speculating on the timing of this. Drone strikes and a truck bomb were used in two previous attempts.
More than ten years after Vladimir Putin forcibly grabbed Crimea, he claimed that Kyiv had a strategy to retake the region. Was this really feasible? “It’s realistic. Of course, it’s a big military secret,” the general said. He continued: “We will do everything we can to reach the internationally recognized borders of 1991 [when Ukraine voted for independence from the USSR]. We have to win … to liberate our citizens who are in the occupied territories, who are suffering.”
Recently, GreatGameInternational reported that NATO’s outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Europe to brace for a potentially decade-long war in Ukraine, asserting that the more the West supports Ukraine, the quicker the conflict could end.
