Russia running campaign to discredit CinC Sirskyi - disinfo watchdog

Russia has launched a massive campaign aimed to compromise Oleksandr Syrskyi, the newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Ukrinform saw.

Head of the CCD, Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, sayd "the Russians are trying to portray the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a ‘Soviet and Russian’ man."

"To this end, they are looking for his relatives in Russia and ‘family friends’ for comments to then circulate them in the media space with the appropriate pretext. The main goal of the campaign is to compromise the Commander-in-Chief and reduce people’s trust in our Armed Forces," the report reads.

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The NSDC’s disinformation watchdog emphasizes that Syrskyi had long been part of former CinC Valeriy Zaluzhnyi's team and "commanded successful operations, in particular for the liberation of Kyiv and Kharkiv regions."

"They would be impossible without high-quality personnel, but a lot depends on the command. So, Syrskyi proved that he knows how to achieve results in the war against Russia," the report reads.

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The CCD also notes that Syrskyi's team consists of young commanders who have been promoted, which "is a prerequisite for systemic improvements in the Armed Forces."

"Supporting the campaign that our CinC is ‘Russia’s guy’ means playing along with malign disinformation. Confidence in the Armed Forces must remain at the highest level," the CCD emphasizes.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on February 8, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, thanking him for defending Ukraine over the past two years.

Later, in a video address to the nation, the president announced the appointment of Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi as new Commander-in-Chief.

On the evening of February 8, 2024, the President's press service published a decree on Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal from the CinC post.