DISINFO: The new chief of the Ukrainian army is a Pentagon slave
SUMMARY
The new chief of the Ukrainian army is supervised by an American general. Zelenskyy follows the US’s orders and will not be in charge of Ukrainian army operations. Syrskyi is a slave of Zelenskyy and the Pentagon.
RESPONSE
This is a conspiracy theory not backed by any evidence. This claim aims to undermine Ukraine’s political and military leadership and portray them as US puppets. Both Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and previous Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief’s Valery Zaluzhny are frequent targets of pro-Kremlin disinformation.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy promoted Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi to Commander of the Armed Forces on 8 February 2024. There is no evidence that Syrskyi or Zelenskyy are ‘supervised’ or controlled by the US. Ukraine is a sovereign country that has an independent foreign and security policy, which is not dictated by the US. Pro-Kremlin outlets often use this narrative of different countries being under the American thumb or as so-called 'Western puppets', to imply that their national sovereignty is under threat and that they have limited power; the classic "Lost sovereignty" narrative.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an unprovoked full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Washington has subjugated the entire system of government in Ukraine, that the Kyiv regime is an American puppet doomed to stay under the US control, that Ukraine is directly controlled from the United States, and that the EU and Ukraine are US puppets in Ukraine war.