Ukraine Looks for New Start after Zelensky Fires Top General

Edward Arnold, a European research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, warned that if Syrsky oversees a retreat, that could backfire, a real risk as Russia is pressing to take the town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. Syrsky is “known as the defender of Kyiv and also [for] the Kharkiv counteroffensive and then suddenly he will be responsible for a withdrawal that people don’t want to make,” Arnold said. “It might also backfire on Zelensky because it’ll be Zelensky who changed things and already there’s been an operational loss.”