Growing revolt against Ukraine’s top commander sees soldiers shredding his awards (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,608)

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According to media reports, the Ukrainian president is considering dismissing general Syrsky, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. People have taken to the streets against Syrsky, while discontent is also growing among soldiers. Some soldiers took part in demonstrations, while others tore up awards signed by the general. Ukrainians attacked warehouses belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries. Satellite images confirmed the destruction of another Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber. Videos of the day: a Ukrainian attack on a tanker and a Russian strike on a grain-carrying ship.

In recent days, significant developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine have taken place more behind closed doors and on Ukrainian streets than directly at the front. Following the announcement of the departure of defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, citizens protested in Ukrainian cities for four consecutive days. For example, 10,000 people took to the streets in Kyiv on Saturday.

Their message to president Volodymyr Zelensky was clear: they want the 35-year-old Fedorov to return as defence minister and for general Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, to go.

The conflict between the two men over the shape of the war — they reportedly could no longer even speak to each other directly — was one of the main reasons for the departure of the apparently popular minister. Fedorov advocates a drone revolution in the military, while Syrsky’s critics see him as representing the old school of Ukrainian commanders. “Fedorov = more Russian deaths, Syrsky = more Ukrainian deaths,” read one placard.

It appears pressure from the streets is having an effect. On Saturday, the British daily Financial Times reported, citing a source, that the Ukrainian president was considering dismissing Syrsky. That would be a major development. The general, credited with successes in the defence of Kyiv and in the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives, has led Ukraine’s military since February 2024, when he took command from the dismissed general Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Financial Times sources said that Zelensky was open to dismissing Syrsky if he could find a successor able to take command of the army without disrupting fighting along the 1,200-km front. The Ukrainian president met various generals over three days. On Sunday, for example, he spoke with Mykhailo Drapatyi, commander of the Joint Forces of Ukraine’s armed forces; Volodymyr Horbatiuk, deputy chief of the general staff; and Oleh Apostol, commander of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces.

But criticism of Syrsky is not coming only from the streets, but directly from within the military as well. Reports emerged that some soldiers had torn up awards signed by Syrsky.

For example, lieutenant colonel Bohdan Krotevych, one of the commanders of Mariupol’s defenders who spent several months in Russian captivity, refused an award. “I do not need an award from someone who does not know what honour and dignity are,” his critic wrote.

Some soldiers also took part in the demonstrations, although they are prohibited from doing so. They subsequently faced threats from their superiors.

Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to Fedorov, described the case of one soldier. “Once he was back at his military unit, he was reported to military counterintelligence and later taken to the military police, handcuffed and threatened with being sent to ‘Skala’ and ‘zeroed out’,” he wrote.

According to Sternenko, Syrsky also pressured brigade commanders to record a video in his support. “At the same time, he is repressing all soldiers who supported the demonstrations,” he added.

An unusual case unfolded in Kostiantynivka. On Saturday, a video emerged showing two soldiers holding a Ukrainian flag with photos of Zelensky and Syrsky. They claimed to have liberated a cultural centre in Kostiantynivka. The soldiers were from the Skala assault regiment, which is close to Syrsky. Several commentators criticised the PR video.

The following day, however, Russians released a video showing the same soldiers holding a Russian flag in the same place. Some began to speculate that the Russians had ultimately captured them because of the PR stunt.

For now, it is unclear how these videos came about and whether the whole episode was an information operation by the Russian side. For example, it is possible that the Ukrainian soldiers appearing in both videos had already been captured. The Skala unit issued a statement confirming the soldiers’ capture, but not whether it happened before or after the video was recorded, or whether the video was authentic at all.

Over the weekend, three senior commanders issued statements in support of Syrsky: Apostol, commander of the Air Assault Forces; Oleksii Neizhpapa, commander of the navy; and Ihor Plakhuta, commander of the Territorial Defence Forces.

Overall, however, it can be said that there are many soldiers and commanders in the military who would welcome Syrsky’s replacement. According to critics, he supports risky operations that put soldiers’ lives at risk.

“It is not a conspiracy theory, but a statement of the fact that a huge number of soldiers, from rank-and-file troops to brigade and corps commanders, are dissatisfied with the commander-in-chief. This attitude among soldiers has been developing for a long time. They have many views on the matter, but cannot express them because it would be outright suicide,” Ukrainian analytical account DeepState UA wrote.

And while during the week it appeared that Zelensky was making his “biggest mistake” so far by dismissing Fedorov, after the weekend it seems that Syrsky will ultimately be the one to go.

“Syrsky may be a great military commander, or he may not be — but that is no longer the point. In a war in which the entire nation is fighting and the army consists of a million people who were civilians only yesterday, a commander cannot afford to be so unpopular that he triggers protests across Ukraine — including protests by veterans and even active-duty soldiers,” commented Yaroslav Trofimov, head of foreign affairs at The Wall Street Journal.

The direction in which Ukraine’s military develops will also depend on who might replace him. Military Land listed seven leading candidates. It mentioned, among others, generals Drapatyi and Apostol, as well as chief of the general staff Andrii Hnatov, his deputy Ihor Skybiuk, and commander of the Ground Forces Hennadii Shapovalov.

According to Ukrainian analyst Tatarigami, Syrsky’s future role would also be important in the event of his dismissal.

“Whether he leaves the armed forces, as Valerii Zaluzhnyi once did, or remains in them in another role, for example as chief of the general staff, while one of his protégés takes over as commander-in-chief — without naming names at this point,” he wrote.

In any case, recent days have shown that, similarly to the abolition of anti-corruption institutions last summer, Zelensky responds to public opinion.

On Saturday and Monday, Ukraine attacked new targets on Russian territory: warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, also referred to as the Russian Amazon. On Saturday, 18 July, it attacked two warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions. Both warehouses burned down completely, and Russian authorities reported at least nine deaths.

This is what one of them looked like after the attack.

On Monday, 20 July, Ukrainians continued their attacks and struck a warehouse in Podolsk.

Ukrainians say Wildberries is not merely an online giant selling clothes and household goods. Its website also offers items for soldiers, such as weapons, bulletproof vests, drones, drone components and fibre-optic cables. It has been on Poland’s sanctions list since April 2022 for “indirect support for the war”.

“All these products are used in the war against Ukraine and contribute to the killing of Ukrainians. Therefore, such facilities are legitimate military targets for Ukraine’s armed forces. I recommend that Wildberries’ management publicly call on Putin to end the war. Only then will the company have a chance of preserving its business,” Ukrainian analyst and former interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko wrote.

Moreover, Russians routinely attack similar civilian facilities, on a far larger scale. For example, they regularly target terminals belonging to Ukraine’s Nova Poshta delivery service and other civilian warehouses.

“On Sunday alone, another Russian attack destroyed a publishing warehouse containing 250,000 Ukrainian books, yet somehow I missed the cries of ‘that is not a military target!’ from those who suddenly become experts in the laws and customs of war when Moscow is the target of a retaliatory strike,” Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko wrote.

Last week, Ukrainians attacked Engels airbase and claimed to have hit a Tu-95MS strategic bomber. Satellite images released over the weekend confirmed that they had indeed hit and destroyed one such Russian aircraft.

The images show that its tail has been destroyed and that it will now be fit only for spare parts. Every such strike is highly significant, as Russia launches cruise missiles from these aircraft. It has only a limited number of these bombers, which it has not produced for some time. According to Oryx, a total of 11 Tu-95MS bombers have been destroyed or damaged.

Videos of the day

Another video has emerged showing a Ukrainian naval drone attacking a Russian shadow fleet tanker. On Sunday, 19 July, Ukraine’s SBU security service announced that it had struck the tanker Avero — although it is unclear whether this was the vessel shown in the video. It was the fourth tanker hit since 10 July.

Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, announced that Ukrainian forces had hit a total of 176 Russian vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov since 6 July. Brovdi also said they had destroyed five Russian ferries operating between Russia and occupied Crimea, reducing transport capacity by this route by 75 percent.

Russia has also continued attacking civilian ships in the Black Sea using Ukrainian ports. Over the weekend, it struck a grain-carrying vessel near Odesa sailing under the flag of Guinea-Bissau and owned by a Turkish owner. According to the Ukrainians, Russia hit it with a Kh-59/Kh-69 missile. Reports say that 10 crew members were killed.

This was the third Russian strike on a civilian ship in the Black Sea in the past two days. Russia is apparently responding to Ukrainian attacks on its shadow fleet, which transports oil.

What are the losses

By Monday morning, Russia had verifiably lost 23,888 pieces of heavy equipment (23,837 on Friday). Of these, Ukrainians destroyed 18,866 (18,815), 993 (993) were damaged, crews abandoned 1,199 (1,199), and the Ukrainian army captured 2,830 (2,830). This includes 4,430 (4,427) tanks, of which 3,332 (3,329) were destroyed in combat.

Ukraine lost 11,781 (11,690) pieces of equipment, of which 9,205 (9,123) were destroyed, 694 (689) damaged, 689 (687) abandoned and 1,193 (1,191) captured. This includes 1,450 (1,443) tanks, of which 1,111 (1,104) were destroyed in combat.

Note: Neither side regularly reports its own fatalities or destroyed equipment. Ukraine publishes daily figures for Russian casualties and destroyed equipment, which cannot be independently verified. This overview uses data from the Oryx project, which has compiled a list of equipment losses documented exclusively by photographs since the start of the war.