Kyiv:

Gen. Alexander Silsky, who has led Ukraine’s ground forces since 2019, was promoted to commander of the armed forces on Thursday as the war with Russia approaches its third year. He succeeds Valery Zaluzhny.

Here are some facts about Silsky, who has become a key figure in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

early years

Silsky was born in July 1965 in the Vladimir region of Russia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He has lived in Ukraine since the 1980s. Like many of his peers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he studied at the Higher Military Command School in Moscow, where he studied with peers who later became Russian commanders, graduated in 1986 and served for five years in the Soviet artillery unit. Some military analysts believe that his battlefield tactics reflected the hierarchy of his Soviet training.

snow leopard

Silsky became commander of the Ukrainian Army in 2019. He previously commanded Ukrainian forces against a Moscow-backed insurgency in eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in 2014 and earned the call sign “Snow Leopard.”

greatest victory

Some of Ukraine’s greatest victories against a full-scale Russian invasion came under Sirsky’s watch. He led the successful defense of the capital Kiev in the early months and was awarded Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest honor, in April 2022. In July 2022, Silsky planned and implemented a lightning counterattack to drive Russian troops out of the city of Kiev. Kharkov and regained large tracts of land in the east and southeast.

Bachmut

Early last year, Sirsky led Ukraine’s defense of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed in one of the bloodiest wars to date. Some military analysts question whether fighting for a destroyed city is worth the casualties. Silsky said Ukraine’s tenacious defense of Bakhmut shackled the Wagner mercenary group and harmed Russia’s overall war effort.

troop morale

Silski said his first priority was to improve the morale of his troops, and he was often photographed on the front lines inspecting troops. He told Western media that he sleeps four and a half hours a night and relaxes by going to the gym. Silski is married and has two sons.

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