He thanked his subordinates for their service, noting that he spent almost 500 days at the head of the corps “not in the rear, not on paper, but on the front line,” with them in “one of the most fierce sectors of the front.”
Sirchenko admitted a number of mistakes in his post.
“I was not an ideal commander; in war there are no ideal ones. Sometimes I pressed. I made mistakes. I was silent when I needed to speak,” his post says.
UNIAN notes that Sirchenko was removed after the loss of the city of Siversk in the north of the Donetsk region. According to Ukrainskaya Pravda sources, in the army environment the main reason for his dismissal was precisely Ukraine’s withdrawal in that sector of the front.
On December 27, the media wrote, citing sources, that after the Ukrainian military left Seversk, the commanders of two brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which held the defense in the city itself and near it, were removed. The article featured the commander of the 54th separate mechanized brigade, Colonel Alexey Konoval, and the commander of the 10th separate mountain assault brigade (standing south of Seversk), Colonel Vladimir Poteshkin. At the same time, it was reported that Sirchenko was removed.
According to the UP, the reason for the dismissal of the brigade commanders was “false reports from the command of both brigades.” They allegedly reported on the availability of positions in their areas of responsibility, which in fact had no personnel for a long time. As the media noted, the 11th Army Corps, which was operationally subordinate to the 54th and 10th, trusted the brigades and was confident that their reports were true.
