Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, has given a detailed account of the current state of the war with Russia, describing a critical battle around Pokrovsk, a transformed battlefield dominated by drones, and a strategic reliance on deep strikes inside Russia – while ruling out any peace deal that requires Kyiv to surrender territory it still holds.
In an interview with Sky News, Syrskyi said Russia is currently waging “a strategic offensive operation” and attempting to advance “along virtually the entire front line” of some 1,250 kilometres. Ukraine, he said, is pursuing an “active defence” designed to exhaust Russian forces, hold key terrain and hit deep into Russia’s military and industrial base.
Pokrovsk: “our city” and a key defensive hub
Syrskyi identified Pokrovsk in Donetsk region as the main effort of the current Russian campaign. Moscow has claimed to have captured the city, but Syrskyi rejected that assertion and set out Kyiv’s understanding of the situation.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, he said, the Russian grouping on the Pokrovsk axis numbers “more than 150,000 personnel”. This includes mechanised and motor rifle formations, “around 18,000 marines”, and now the redeployment of the 76th Air Assault Division, which he called “their reserve” and “elite units” usually committed “where the situation is most challenging or where they aim to achieve a breakthrough”.
On control of the city, he stated: “The northern part of Pokrovsk remains under our control and we’re gradually advancing deeper into the city. At the same time, the enemy is actively attacking from the south. In other words, the north is held by us while the southern part is within the enemy’s offensive zone.”
He characterised Pokrovsk as “a powerful fortified defensive hub… an extensive fortified area equipped with numerous defensive structures of various types”, which has allowed Ukrainian forces to hold out despite sustained Russian pressure. Russia, he noted, has been trying to seize the city “intensively for 16 months” and had repeatedly announced deadlines for its capture – including a public claim that it would take Pokrovsk by 30 September 2024 – none of which had been met. “Every month the deadline kept shifting, and yet Pokrovsk is still under our control,” he said.
Urban defence, Syrskyi argued, gives Ukrainian forces a structural advantage. He said the Russian army “loses hundreds of service members every day in its attempts to take the city yet without any meaningful success”, despite “overwhelming superiority in manpower and equipment”.
He pointed to a Ukrainian operation from August to October on the Dobropillia axis, north-east of Pokrovsk, which he described as “a successful counter-offensive”. In that sector, he said, Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops back up to 20 kilometres, cut off some units that had penetrated the lines, and “effectively liberated and cleared approximately 430 square kilometres of territory”. On that axis alone, he added, Russia lost “more than 13,000 service members, both killed and wounded”.
A 710,000-strong Russian grouping and Ukraine’s “active defence”
Zooming out from Pokrovsk, Syrskyi said that Russia maintains “over 710,000 personnel” on the territory of Ukraine, including the occupied areas. This force, he said, is configured as an “offensive grouping” now engaged in a broad offensive effort, with the fiercest activity around Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, Lyman and parts of the Zaporizhzhia region.
He described Ukraine’s response as a strategic defensive campaign with offensive elements where possible. The aim, he said, is “to contain the enemy’s advance, prevent them from breaking deeper, inflict maximum losses, and carry out counter-offensive actions in those sectors where we see the enemy is vulnerable”.
“This form of active defence,” he said, allows Ukraine “to disrupt the enemy’s plans and inflict heavy casualties”. He claimed that Russian forces are losing “around 1,000 to 2,000 service members killed or wounded every day and the majority are killed”. The overall strategy, he said, is “to exhaust the Russian army as much as possible, prevent its advance [and] hold territory, while simultaneously striking the enemy in the near rear, the operational depth, [and] deeper into Russia itself”.
Drone-dominated battlefield and changing tactics
Syrskyi said the war has undergone “a dramatic change” driven by technology, especially unmanned systems. “Now drones on the battlefield are the main strike force,” he said. They provide reconnaissance and deliver munitions “day and night and with high effectiveness”.
By Ukrainian estimates, he said, Russia uses “approximately 4,000 to 5,000 first-person-view drones” against Ukrainian positions every day, and “around 1,500 to 2,000 drones that drop bombs”. In addition, he said, “hundreds of heavy bomber drones” are employed, functioning in effect as “frontline aviation”.
On the Ukrainian side, Syrskyi said there is “roughly parity” in drone numbers, with Ukraine “deploying slightly more FPV drones than the Russians” and fielding “very successful models of heavy bomber drones” that are “creating major problems for the enemy and inflicting their highest losses”.
He argued that drones have “changed both tactics and the operational art of conducting combat”. The large, battalion-sized armoured assaults that characterised the early phase of the full-scale invasion have largely disappeared. “There are no large battalion level mass assaults,” he said. Instead, “only small combat groups are used – teams of two to four servicemen across a wide front, moving by exploiting terrain cover and tree lines.”
The structure of the front, he said, has shifted from a shallow line of large strongpoints to “a multitude of combat positions – small team positions, sometimes squad level”, with the depth of the formation extending far into the rear. This, in turn, has pushed artillery further back – “now about 8 to 10 kilometres from the front line” – reducing its responsiveness.
Artillery still plays “a significant role”, but Syrskyi said that “around 60 per cent of strikes are carried out by drones and only about 40 per cent by the artillery”. The focus for artillery, he added, is moving towards precision-guided and long-range ammunition and specialised rounds, “first and foremost remote mining, which prevents the use of armoured vehicles and slows movement deep within the enemy’s formations”.
At the same time, he noted, “the battlefield today is dominated by drones, electronic warfare systems, and aerial strike capabilities”, including guided aerial bombs. He said Russia is using between 130 and 150 guided bombs “every single day”.
Deep strikes, Russian attacks and the search for leverage
Syrskyi gave particular emphasis to long-range strikes inside Russia, describing them as “an effective method of armed struggle” that has “proven its effectiveness over a long period”.
Deep strikes allow Ukrainian forces to hit “significant enemy targets in depth – everything the enemy relies upon to conduct and sustain the war”. He listed “the production of military equipment, dual-use technologies, missiles, artillery shells – essentially everything the enemy employs against us – and the sources of financing” such as oil and gas infrastructure.
Russia’s oil and gas industry, he said, generates “roughly $120 billion in revenue”, while the country’s military budget this year is “$175 billion”, a substantial part of which is financed through energy exports. “By hitting these sources of financing… we reduce its ability to continue,” he said, pointing to “Russian enterprises burning – factories producing weapons, military equipment, missiles”.
He linked these strikes directly to Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukrainian cities. Each day, he said, Russia employs “anywhere from 100 to 200 or 300 and sometimes up to 700 drones”, including Shahed-type attack drones, each carrying “50 kilogrammes of explosives or more”. He said that the previous day alone Russia had launched three Iskander ballistic missiles. “This happens practically every day for us,” he said. “Every night becomes a nightmare because civilians cannot rest. No one knows when a drone, a ballistic missile or a cruise missile might arrive.”
Asked whether deep strikes are Ukraine’s most effective tool to put pressure on Moscow, Syrskyi described them as a “forced measure, a retaliatory strike”, arguing that they are necessary to “undermine Russia’s economy and its ability to finance the war” and to disrupt the production of the weapons and guidance systems used against Ukraine.
No territorial concessions and Russia’s war aim
On possible peace terms, Syrskyi took a firm position against any settlement that would require Kyiv to give up land it still controls. “Naturally, for us, it is unacceptable to simply give up territory,” he said. “What does it even mean to hand over our land? This is precisely why we’re fighting. So, we do not give up our territory.”
He said he does not “even allow” himself to consider a scenario in which Ukraine is forced into such a deal. “All wars eventually end,” he said, and when this one does, “a just peace must be established”.
In his view, “a just peace is peace without preconditions, without giving up territory. It means stopping along the current line of contact. That means ceasefire, after that negotiations without any conditions. Only then will such a peace be fair. Any other terms would be an unjust peace and for us it is unacceptable.”
On Russia’s objectives, he said: “Their goal is to destroy our statehood entirely. And of course, if they had the military capacity and if our army were not as resilient as it is, they would attempt to seize all of Ukraine.” He added that Moscow “constantly” puts forward “new territorial demands and ambitions” and that Russian commanders are tasked with advancing “deep inside our defences and [capturing] as much territory and as many settlements as possible”.
Western support, Europe’s security and Ukraine’s capacity to fight
Syrskyi underlined the imbalance of resources between Russia and Ukraine, noting that Kyiv faces “a country that surpasses us in territory, population, and military industry potential”. Ukraine has been at war since 2014, he said, and has spent the past four years repelling the full-scale invasion.
“The scale of this warfare… requires enormous resources,” he said, citing the mass use of manpower, equipment, drones, aviation and missiles. “Naturally, our country and our industry cannot independently produce the amount of weapons and ammunition needed for an adequate response to the enemy.”
He expressed gratitude for support from the United States and other partners and said Ukraine “expects continued support” with weapons and ammunition. Given the escalation in Russian air attacks, he said, Kyiv “needs air defence systems and missiles for them. We need aviation and again missiles to shoot down those things”, as “the vast majority” of strikes target cities, industrial and energy infrastructure and “everything that ensures the existence of our nation”.
Asked whether Ukraine could continue to fight if US support were to fall away, Syrskyi said he hoped American backing would continue, but added that Kyiv also counts on its European partners. He said he hoped that, “if necessary, [they] will be ready to provide everything required for our just war against the aggressor because right now we are defending not only ourselves but all of Europe. If we’re not here, others will be forced to fight in Europe.”
Responding to questions about European militaries preparing their populations for possible conflict with Russia, he said that “the armed forces of every country ensure reliable protection of their citizens, their children, and their territory”. With “aggressive states – above all the Russian Federation and its allies”, he argued, it is essential “to maintain a level of defence and armed forces modern enough to repel aggression both individually and in support of the allies”.
Manpower, motivation and outlook
Syrskyi said Ukraine has “the resources to continue conducting military operations”, but that the armed forces seek to preserve lives. “Of course, the lives of our citizens is the highest value that we have,” he said, stressing that the military does not conduct “massive offensives or mass assaults” and does not tie operations to symbolic dates.
“We defend our municipalities only as long as it makes sense,” he said. “We do not defend ruins that have no strategic value or would only cost us the lives of our service members.” At the same time, he said, Russia continues offensive operations without pause, using “peace talks as cover” while “pushing their troops forward to seize as much of our territory as possible”.
On motivation, Syrskyi said the primary driver is the defence of Ukraine itself. “We’re defending our own country, our nation,” he said. “We’re waging a righteous war, protecting our people, our cities and towns, and our land. We protect our tradition, our language, everything that has the highest value to us. That is the source of motivation.”
He contrasted this with the destruction left by Russian forces. “We can see clearly what the Russian army leaves behind,” he said: “Towns wiped out, reduced to foundations and rubble. No industry, no life. Scorched land.”
Syrskyi said the armed forces enjoy “the highest level of trust among our people” and are “truly a guarantor of our security”. Summing up his assessment of Ukraine’s prospects, he said: “Do we have a strategy to end this war on fair terms? Absolutely. That’s for sure. We’re doing everything to achieve this – above all, through the armed forces of Ukraine and our entire society.”
