The pieces on the chessboard are clear in his mind. Syrskyi goes on to describe a dizzying number of moves on the battlefield. The Kremlin has moved units such as the 83 assault paratrooper brigade to Bakhmut from the south, he says, after the breaching of the Kakhovka dam in the southerly Kherson region made the passing of the Dnipro River – which would be necessary for Ukraine to liberate the remaining occupied territory there – even more daunting. Russia has been pursuing its own offensives near the town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region in the east of the country, while on Tuesday there was “hard fighting” in the Serebryansky forest, on the border of the Donetsk region, he says. “It’s difficult, stressful,” he says of the latest developments on the frontline. Syrskyi, now sitting on some old tyres by a small village of military tents in the camp, the location of which is being withheld for security reasons, makes no bones about the difficulty of what his soldiers are trying to perform. This week, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, while insisting that the world should leave Ukraine to implement its own battle plan, conceded that progress was “slower than we want”. Two weeks ago, that much-vaunted offensive began in the east under Syrskyi’s operational command. Military vehicles during a training exercise. The miracles of the battles for Kyiv, Kharkiv and then the liberation of the north of the Kherson region has made the Ukrainian public, and western capitals, hungry for more glory or at least some revitalising signs that, after 16 months, the war can be won. Syrskyi was also credited with the execution of a plan to push Russia’s artillery far enough away from the north-eastern city of Kharkiv to spare civilians who had been living under constant fire, before he was said to have masterminded the counteroffensive that broke through Russian lines and liberated the wider region.īut, as the Economist recently reported, “Syrskyi’s brilliance faces a momentous challenge”.įor months, there had been talk of Ukraine’s “spring” counteroffensive. “He didn’t sleep for three days after 24 February,” says an aide. He was made a Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest honour, for his efforts.

It was Syrskyi who led the defence of Kyiv last February and March as Putin’s forces were bearing down on Ukraine’s capital with the mission of decapitating the country’s leadership. Oleksandr Syrskyi (left) was made a Hero of Ukraine for his efforts in the battle of Kyiv.

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