Chief among the “fossils,” in the eyes of some of the soldiers who responded to our requests, is General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the austere 60-year-old commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.

He was hailed a national hero four years ago, following his successful defense of kyiv in the weeks following Russia’s full-scale invasion. But General Syrskyi’s name has since been associated with an outdated way of fighting that places little value on human lives.

“Syrskyi does not inspire authority or respect,” Andriy told us. “For us, he’s still General 200,” a derogatory nickname that refers to a Soviet military code for casualties.

Others simply call him “The Butcher.”

To be fair, not all military members share such a bleak view of their leader.

“There is currently no substitute for Syrskyi in the army,” Andrii, a former frontline soldier who now works in the General Staff, told us.

“Yes, he has a Soviet mentality and graduated from a military school in Russia, but we do not have another military commander of such caliber. He led all the successful operations of this war.”

One thing is clear: Mykhailo Fedorov and General Syrskyi had clearly clashed when President Zelensky made his decision this week.

Explaining his decision not to reappoint Fedorov, Zelensky said the two men could not even be in the same room together, while the ousted minister blamed the general for blocking all his reforms.

“It was a snowball,” Andrii told us. “Everyone knew it. Zelensky had to make a decision.”

With a 25-year age difference (Fedorov is 35), the two men at the center of this explosive dispute represent very different versions of Ukraine.

“Fedorov is an iPhone 16, Syrskyi is a phone from the 80s,” military analyst and former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak told me.

“You know, same purpose but different approaches.”