Shirsky, who will succeed General Valery Zarzhny, has been nicknamed “Snow Leopard” and “Hero of Ukraine” for his actions on the battlefield.
Colonel Oleksandr Shirsky, chosen by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to lead Ukraine's military, played a key role in some of the country's greatest victories in the war with Russia, including overseeing the early successful defense of the capital, Kiev. came. of invasion.
Like most senior officers of his generation, Shirsky was born in Soviet Russia in July 1965 and studied at the Red Army Military Academy in Moscow.
In the 1980s, he was sent to Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
But when the Soviet Union collapsed, he remained in Ukraine, studied at the National Defense University in Kiev, and became a member of the newly independent Ukrainian military.
Mr. Schilsky's selection as commander-in-chief is not surprising. This is because there are few people in the Ukrainian military with the experience and know-how to succeed his popular predecessor, General Valery Zarzhiny.
In 2014, he commanded Ukrainian troops fighting Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Donetsk and was given the call sign “Snow Leopard.”
He became commander of the ground forces of Ukraine in 2019 and led the country into war when it invaded Russia in February 2022.
In the early months of the war, he was named a Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest honor, for his successful defense of Kiev.
Soviet training
In July 2022, Shirsky planned and executed a blitzkrieg counterattack that drove Russian forces from the northern city of Kharkov and recaptured vast swaths of land in the east and southeast.
Two months later, Shirsky was credited with leading a counterattack in the Kharkov region, which became Ukraine's most important victory in the war, allowing Kiev to retake the cities of Kupiansk and Izum from Russian forces.
He also led Operation Bakhmut, which was the longest and bloodiest of the war and has been criticized for heavy losses suffered by Ukrainian forces. The tactic of pegging Russian forces in strategically unimportant salt-mining towns in eastern Ukraine also depleted Russian troops and resources, depriving it of the ability to make major breakthroughs elsewhere.
Some military analysts believe his battlefield tactics reflect his hierarchical Soviet training.
His successes on the front lines have won him the support of the soldiers, who have been locked in grueling battles for two years. He says his top priority is the morale of his soldiers and is regularly photographed visiting the front lines.
But as victory in the war turns into a war of attrition, Mr. Shirsky has been forced to oversee the most difficult phase of the conflict, which enters its third year this month. A lack of ammunition and new manpower threatens to weaken the Ukrainian front as Russian forces look to advance.
Meanwhile, with much-needed U.S. military aid pending in Congress, Ukraine's military's main goal this winter is to hold onto territory it controls.
