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00:00 We know that Volodymyr Zelensky has named Oleksandr Sirsky as the new commander-in-chief
00:06 of Ukraine's armed forces. Oleksandr Sirsky was the commander of the ground forces and one of
00:12 the two men who had been tipped to succeed Valery Zelensky during the, I would say,
00:17 months of speculation that have been going on about the possibility that Valery Zelensky would
00:22 be dismissed. You might say it's not exactly consonant with the language that they've been
00:26 using to present these changes, saying that it's time for renewal, that it's time for new ideas,
00:32 very much trying to present a united front with Zelensky and Zelensky parting ways amicably,
00:38 but saying it's time for renewal because the man that they've named to succeed Valery Zelensky is
00:44 significantly older than him and studied in Russia and is widely regarded as someone with a rather
00:50 old school, perhaps a little bit of a Soviet mentality. He's much less popular among the
00:55 troops on the ground than Valery Zelensky was. That said, Oleksandr Sirsky is also the man
01:00 credited basically with orchestrating the defense of Kiev and Kiev region in those early weeks of
01:06 the war, so his achievements certainly are notable. But I think really they've been trying to
01:11 prepare this change for perhaps as much as a year. I remember a year ago there was a government
01:17 sanctioned documentary that came out that was basically documenting the first year of the full
01:22 scale war and in that it was very, very clear that they tried to give a lot of space to a long
01:27 interview with Oleksandr Sirsky. They were trying to make his star rise, as it were, among Ukrainian
01:33 popular opinion. That didn't really work out. Valery Zelensky remains by far the most popular
01:39 figure in Ukraine, more popular even than Volodymyr Zelensky. And is it because of that popularity
01:45 that he's out? Well, that is the big question. Is it because of the rivalry, because Zelensky is
01:53 afraid of Valery Zelensky's popularity and his possible political ambitions, of which there
01:59 has been only speculation? He, of course, has never said he has any political ambitions. Or is it
02:04 because of the situation on the ground, because of real differences in terms of strategy? Of course,
02:09 the counteroffensive on the ground last year was a disappointment. Valery Zelensky has to take at
02:14 least some of the blame for that. And there have been very public differences of opinion between
02:20 President Zelensky and Valery Zelensky about mobilization, about the need to draft more
02:25 men. Zelensky saying that they need at least half a million. Zelensky casting doubt on those figures.
02:30 So that's the topic of much debate at the moment in Ukraine is how much is this about politics
02:36 and about Zelensky's character? And how much is it actually about the real need for some real
02:42 renewal on the ground, basically the story that they're presenting as the official version?
02:46 On the ground where it's a stalemate currently.
02:49 Well, stalemate was also the word that Valery Zelensky rather controversially used. I think
02:56 he used it only once in an interview in an article for The Economist. And it was amplified all around
03:01 the world. And Volodymyr Zelensky was certainly not happy with that choice of word, which is
03:05 perhaps not an apt choice of word, because it suggests that there's no way out. And Valery
03:09 Zelensky's whole argument was that Ukraine could find a way out through new technologies
03:14 and different strategies.