Ukraine's commander-in-chief says war not at stalemate, situation could have been far worse
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, believes that the Russo-Ukrainian war has not reached a stalemate and that Moscow's objectives for 2025 were far more ambitious than its actual achievements.
Source: Syrskyi in an interview with Le Monde
Details: The article notes that the multiplicity of military operations leads Syrskyi, unlike his predecessor Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to assert that "the war has not reached a stalemate". Not only do territories continue to change hands, but "the war is being fought in all domains – on land, in the air and at sea", and "it is now impossible to speak exclusively about a ground war".
Speaking about 2025, Syrskyi said the military situation could have been significantly worse, as Russia's objectives were much more ambitious.
Quote: "Russia prepared its forces to conduct a large-scale offensive operation in 2025. It wanted to seize the entire Donbas, territories in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson oblasts, and to create a buffer zone in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts, but it failed to do so."
Details: Syrskyi also stressed that although Russian forces had been reputed to have an inexhaustible supply of manpower, while the Ukrainian army faced difficulties recruiting new soldiers, 2025 became the first year of the war when "the losses of the Russian army exceeded its recruitment levels".
He stated that "despite managing to mobilise and conscript 406,000 personnel in 2025, their total losses, including those killed and wounded, amounted to around 418,000 soldiers".
Background:
- In November 2023, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who at the time was commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with The Economist that the situation on the front had reached a stalemate, where neither side could advance due to equal technological capabilities. He compared it to the First World War.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disagreed with him at the time.
- On 8 February 2024, Zelenskyy signed a decree relieving Zaluzhnyi of his duties as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
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