Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he is expecting a “detailed report and concrete proposals” from Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, who was named chief of the General Staff on February 9, early in the coming week.
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During his daily video address late on March 2, Zelenskiy noted that Syrskiy recently returned from a tour of the front and added that the General Staff has “carte blanche for personnel changes in the army or any changes at the headquarters.”
Earlier the same day, Syrskiy announced a reshuffling of commanders of several combat brigades, noting in a Telegram post that during his tour of the eastern part of the front he determined that “some brigades manage to hold back enemy attacks and hold their positions, while others do not.”
The announcements came shortly after Russian forces captured the Donetsk region city of Avdiyivka following a long and costly campaign and reports that Ukrainian defense forces are experiencing shortages of munitions amid declining Western aid.
Zelenskiy said he continues talks with Western partners on the provision of weapons and “the continuity of support.” A large package of U.S. military assistance has been stalled in Congress. The New York Times reported on February 29 that the Biden administration was considering providing munitions to Ukraine from existing stockpiles as a stopgap measure even though a fund to replenish those supplies has been exhausted.
“Ukraine has not asked for anything except what is needed to save lives,” Zelenskiy said. “It is impossible to understand how partners can let political games or disputers limit our defense while lives are being lost.”
“It is impossible to accept this,” he said. “And it will be impossible to forget it. The world will remember.”
Meanwhile, officials said the bodies of two more civilians killed in a Russian drone attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa on March 2 had been recovered from the rubble of a residential building, raising the death toll in the incident to 10. The bodies were of a woman and her eight-month-old baby, bringing the number of small children killed in the strike to three.
Officials have declared March 3 a day of mourning in the Odesa region.
In the early hours of March 3, air-raid warnings sounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region, but no casualties were reported in what was described as a “missile attack” in the Nikopol area.
On February 21, the United Nations reported that at least 10,582 Ukrainian civilians had been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, adding “it is likely the real number of civilian casualties is much higher.”