Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on the country's Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine August 24, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promoted his top army commander to a four-star general, his office said on Saturday, just weeks after Kyiv's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksander Syrskyi, 59, who had held the military rank of colonel general, was promoted to a general, the decree published on the presidential website said.
Ukraine launched an offensive into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6. Kyiv has claimed control of more than 90 settlements and set up a military commandant office.
While the incursion into Kursk is an embarrassment for Russia, Moscow's forces have inched forward in recent months against Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donetsk region.
Syrskyi, who was born in 1965 in Russia's Vladimir region, has lived in Ukraine since the 1980s. He was appointed as Ukraine's army chief in February.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
