(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s new Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said he plans to make more changes in military leadership and general staff to bring in more officers who’ve gained experience during Russia’s invasion. 

“Our headquarters should know all of the battlefield’s needs and should understand the situation on every part of the front,” Syrskyi told the state news agency Ukrinform in the first interview since his appointment last month. 

“And for that, the skills of the officers who are part of the military administration come to the foreground,” he said. 

 

 didn’t say how many officials who served under his popular predecessor General Valerii Zaluzhnyi would be replaced, or provide other details. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed Zaluzhnyi as his ambassador to the UK. 

Ukraine’s army has struggled to make gains in recent months, held back by a shortage of new soldiers and delays in the delivery of weaponry from allies. 

US lawmakers have been wrangling over more than $60 billion of military assistance for Kyiv for months, while a law on mobilization languishes in Ukraine’s parliament. Zelenskiy has said he expects Russia to launch another offensive around the end of May or early June. 

After a review of internal resources, the military plans to draft “significantly” fewer people than the 500,000 initially discussed, Syrskyi said, without giving a new number. “We expect to have enough people to protect the fatherland, and we are talking not only about those conscripted but also about volunteers.” 

While Russia was outgunning Ukraine’s forces six-to-one with artillery shells as recently as “several days ago,” Kyiv has managed to improve the situation along some parts of the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) frontline, Syrskyi said, without elaborating. 

After Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive failed to break through entrenched Russian lines, Kyiv is starting to build its own fortifications. Some critics have questioned why that wasn’t started earlier. 

Read more: Ukraine Rushes to Build Over 1,000 Miles of War Fortifications

“The enemy continues its offensive along a wide front” and is looking to reach the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine’s east “at any cost,” as well as taking more territory in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Syrskyi said. 

Those three regions, along with Kherson, were illegally annexed by Russia in 2022. Moscow’s forces don’t have full control over any of the regions. 

“We are preparing solid defense lines at almost all directions that are at threat,” Syrski added. 

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