Це вже занадто": Зеленський став на захист Сирського

The President deemed offensive slogans against the military unacceptable but acknowledged that the Commander-in-Chief should have reacted to the “Rock” incident.

Zelensky and Syrsky / © Office of the President of Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that personnel decisions in the army are made through legal channels, and offensive slogans against former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky and other military personnel are excessive.

The President made these remarks during a conversation with journalists.

“For example, key personnel matters in the army are, first and foremost, the prerogative of the President, the Chief of the General Staff, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and corps commanders. It’s not exclusively the Ministry of Defence. Don’t like military subordination? That’s another matter. But there’s a legal procedure for how people are changed. Someone might dislike Syrsky for one reason or another. But slogans like ‘Syrsky is a devil’? ‘Khmara is a devil’?… What’s next? Will they say ‘Budanov is a devil’? Listen, that’s going too far. Do you understand? In principle, you cannot treat military personnel like that or tolerate it, especially when it is the military itself that has enabled any peaceful protests to occur in the Ukrainian capital – by defending it from the Russians,” Zelensky said.

At the same time, the president admitted that there were claims against Syrsky, particularly concerning the “Rock” incident. According to Zelensky, the Commander-in-Chief should have reacted to that situation at the time.

“…Oleksandr Syrsky has a large number of victories. But regardless, he should have paid attention to the ‘Rock’ incident and similar matters. He should have reacted – that’s a fact. Were there questions about him? Yes. But still, there is Kyiv, there is Kharkiv, there is the Kursk operation. He is definitely not a ‘devil’,” the president stated.

We remind you that after the resignation of Mykhailo Fedorov, rallies in his support took place in Kyiv and other cities. Participants opposed the dismissal of the Minister of Defence and called on the authorities to reconsider the personnel decision. Veterans, public activists, and public figures joined the protests.

In Kyiv, protesters gathered near the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre; rallies also took place in Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia, and other cities. The main demand was support for Fedorov, but increasingly, calls to dismiss Oleksandr Syrsky were also heard at the rallies. People came to the rallies with cardboard signs, including those with offensive inscriptions directed at the former Commander-in-Chief.