Chief among the “fossils”, in the eyes of some of the soldiers who responded to our requests, is Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the austere 60-year-old commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
He was regarded as a national hero four years ago, following his successful defence of Kyiv in the weeks following Russia’s full-scale invasion. But Gen Syrskyi’s name has since become linked with an outdated way of fighting which places little value on human lives.
“Syrskyi commands no authority or respect,” Andriy told us. “To us, he remains the General 200,” a derogatory nickname referring to a Soviet military code for casualties.
Others simply call him “The Butcher”.
To be fair, not everyone in the military shares such a dim view of their leader.
“Currently there is no replacement for Syrskyi in the army,” Andrii, a former front-line soldier now working in the General Staff told us.
“Yes, he is Soviet-minded and graduated from a military school in Russia, but we do not have another military commander of such calibre. He conducted all the successful operations of this war.”
One thing is clear: Mykhailo Fedorov and Gen Syrskyi had clearly fallen out by the time President Zelensky made his move this week.
Explaining his decision not to reappoint Fedorov, Zelensky said the two men were unable even to be in the same room together, while the ousted minister blamed the general for blocking all his reforms.
“It was snowballing,” Andrii told us. “Everyone knew about it. Zelensky had to make a decision.”
With their 25 year gap in age (Fedorov is 35), the two men at the centre of this explosive row represent very different versions of Ukraine.
“Fedorov is an iPhone 16, Syrskyi is a telephone from the 1980s,” military analyst and former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak told me.
“You know, the same purpose but with different approaches.”
