Yaroslav Trofimov
Second day of street protests in Ukraine after Zelensky suddenly fired reformist defense minister Fedorov. The crowds are much bigger and the chant is “Down with Syrsky.” It is very hard to motivate people to join the military when the commander in chief, Gen Syrsky, is perceived — rightly or wrongly, but widely — as a Soviet-school general who doesn’t care about casualties, and who has allowed the emergence of pet regiments that reproduce some of the worst Russian army habits, like torture and extrajudicial killings of recruits.