Ukraine’s new army chief speaks to Nato supreme commander on Kyiv’s military plans for 2024

‘Discussed our military plans for 2024 and the commander-in-chief announced priorities,’ says Ukrainian defence minister

Ukraine’s newly appointed armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi discussed the war-hit nation’s military plans for 2024 with the supreme commander of the Nato Armed Forces in Europe, defence minister Rustem Umerov said on Tuesday.

Mr Umerov said he and General Syrskyi had "a clear and substantive conversation" with the military leaders.

“Together with commander-in-chief Syrskyi, we had a conversation with our close partners – the supreme commander of the Nato Armed Forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, and the commander of the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, Lieutenant General Antonio Aguto,” he said on Facebook.

He added: “A clear and substantive conversation. We discussed our military plans for 2024. The commander-in-chief announced the priorities.”

The priorities, according to Kyiv’s military plan laid out by the top defence officials, includes optimisation of the structure of the armed forces, improvement of the quality of training of the Ukrainian military, additional staffing of existing brigades and creation of new ones and supplying of regular needs in weapons and equipment.

“Another important topic is ensuring the rotation of our soldiers on the frontline,” the statement added, pointing out a concern of rotation of troops engaged in the war on the frontline.

The leaders also discussed the “constant increase in EW [electronic warfare] assets to eliminate the threat of enemy drones”.

Ukraine’s Colonel-General Syrskyi replaced the top commander Valeriy Zaluzhny last week after a reshuffle prompted by Volodymyr Zelensky.

Shortly after taking charge, the new commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine said he will be switching from a strategy of defence, rather than attack, in an attempt to “exhaust” Russian advances, stating that the situation was “difficult” but conflict should soon come to an end.

“At this time, the situation can be assessed as difficult. The enemy is now advancing along almost the entire front line, and we have moved from offensive operations to conducting a defensive operation,” he told German TV channel ZDF.

“The objective of our defence operation is to exhaust the enemy’s forces, inflict maximum losses on him, using our fortifications, our advantages in terms of technology, in terms of using unmanned aircraft, means of electronic warfare, and maintaining prepared defence lines.”

Colonel-General Syrskyi was leading Ukraine’s ground forces since 2019 and was also overlooking Kyiv’s successful defence against Russian forces in the early days of invasion.

The top general has been a critical part of successful counteroffensive operations in July 2022 when Ukrainian soldiers pushed Russian troops out of the northern city Kharkiv and recaptured swathes of land in the east and southeast.

He was named a Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest honour, in April 2022.