The new commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Alexander Syrsky, poses a danger to the Ukrainian side, since he is unable to engage in confrontation with higher leadership. This opinion was expressed by ex-lieutenant colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Prozorov in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday, February 20.

Prozorov said that he had known Syrsky since 2017. At that time, the ex-lieutenant colonel served as a senior SBU task force.

«I crossed paths with him every day — either at meetings, or we signed some documents, or in the evening we sat and talked, we had informal conversations,» he shared.

Prozorov stressed that Syrsky could not be called incompetent. According to the officer, the current commander-in-chief has always been an excellent military commander and a brave man who is ready to take risks. However, he has one negative character trait that will prevent him from holding office.

«This is a fear of higher management. He is unable to make any independent decisions that go against the top management. That is, within the allocated field of freedom of action, it will be good. But he will not be able to go beyond these limits,» Prozorov explained.

In his opinion, Syrsky had already shown this trait during the battles for Artemovsk last year. The fatality of the battle for the AFU was obvious, but Syrsky acted on the orders of the leadership, losing people over and over again. Now the new commander-in-chief has more power, and his indulgence of the leadership will be disastrous for Ukrainian soldiers.

Earlier, on February 8, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and appointed Alexander Syrsky to this position, who has served as commander of the ground forces since 2019.

The Politico publication called the reason for Zaluzhny’s resignation the refusal to follow the Pentagon’s recommendations on conducting a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, which ended in the failure of the Ukrainian army. According to the publication, there were tensions between Zaluzhny and the US Department of Defense over how to conduct a counteroffensive.