The Snow Leopard: Five facts about Ukraine's new commander-in-chief you need to know

Rather like Ukraine's counter-offensive last year, we knew this was coming. The only question was when.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signalled last week that his current commander-in-chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi was about to be removed.

His successor, we now know, is Ukraine's ground forces commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Here are some interesting facts about the officer they call the Snow Leopard.

• Zaluzhny is Ukraine's best - sacking him is a mistake, warns retired General
• Avdiivka defenders subjected to dramatic increase in Russian air strikes over past two weeks
• Avdiivka: The strategic and symbolic Ukrainian city at the centre of the war

Background

Gen Syrskyi was born in July 1965 in Russia's Vladimir region, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He has lived in Ukraine since the 1980s.

Like many people of his age in Ukraine's armed forces, he studied in Moscow at the Higher Military Command School among peers who have since become Russian commanders, graduating in 1986 and serving for five years in the Soviet Artillery Corps.

Some military analysts believe his battlefield tactics reflect his hierarchical Soviet training.

Military command

Gen Syrskyi oversaw some of Ukraine's biggest victories during Russia's full-scale invasion.

He led the successful defence of the capital Kyiv in the early months and was named a Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest honour, in April 2022.

In July 2022, he planned and executed a lightning counter-offensive that pushed Russian troops away from the city of Kharkiv and retook swathes of land to the east and southeast.

The Snow Leopard

Gen Syrskyi became head of Ukraine's land forces in 2019. He previously commanded Ukrainian troops fighting a Moscow-backed insurgency in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in 2014, and was given the callsign Snow Leopard.

Bakhmut 

Early last year, Gen Syrskyi led Ukraine's defence of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed in one of the bloodiest battles of the war so far.

Some military analysts questioned whether fighting for a ruined city was worth so many dead and wounded.

But he said Ukraine's dogged defence of Bakhmut had damaged Russia's overall war effort by tying down the Wagner mercenary group.

Troop morale

Gen Syrskyi says his priority is the morale of his troops, whom he is regularly pictured visiting at the front.

He has told Western media that he sleeps four-and-a-half hours a night and relaxes by going to the gym. He is married and has two sons.