SerpApi.Org
By Ben Aris in Berlin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, replacing Oleksandr Syrskyi in the most significant shake-up of Ukraine's military leadership since 2024, Reuters reported on July 21.
Zelenskiy announced the decision on the evening of July 21 after several days of consultations with senior commanders and amid an escalating political crisis triggered by a government reshuffle the previous week. The president said the appointment and a related reorganisation of the General Staff would be formalised on July 22, in a bet that a younger battlefield commander can meet public demands for change while preserving the lives of soldiers Ukraine can least afford to lose.
'I have decided that the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be Mykhailo Drapatyi,' Zelenskiy said. He thanked Syrskyi for his role in the defence of Kyiv, the 2022 Kharkiv counter-offensive and the Kursk operation.
The change follows the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who lost his post when the cabinet was dissolved the previous week after around six months in office. Fedorov said afterwards that he had clashed with Syrskyi and had urged Zelenskiy to remove the commander-in-chief over blocked military reforms. Drapatyi, an ally of Fedorov, publicly backed the ousted minister after his dismissal.
Fedorov's removal sparked protests in Kyiv and other cities, with demonstrators demanding his reinstatement, Syrskyi's removal and military reforms, some chanting Drapatyi's name as their preferred replacement.
The appointment marks a generational shift. Drapatyi, 43, is associated with the cohort of officers shaped by the war that began in 2014 rather than the Soviet-trained structures that continued to influence the army after independence. Syrskyi, 60, has classical Soviet-era training and drew criticism over heavy losses during the attritional defence of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured in 2023.
Drapatyi's immediate tasks will include preparing an updated defence strategy, continuing the transition from brigade-level command to a corps system and improving the supply of weapons, drones and equipment to frontline units. Zelenskiy also demanded a clearer approach to mobilisation and better protection against Russian air and missile attacks.
'The army needs change, but without justice no change will make sense to the people who carry this war on their shoulders every day,' Drapatyi said after Fedorov's dismissal.
Born in Kamianets-Podilskyi in November 1982, Drapatyi graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Forces in 2004 and began his career as a tank officer in the 72nd Mechanised Brigade. He first became widely known during the fighting for Mariupol in May 2014, when, as a major commanding a mechanised battalion, he was inside an infantry fighting vehicle that smashed through a separatist barricade on one of the city's main roads. Footage of the vehicle crashing through the obstruction became a defining image of the early months of the Donbas war and established his reputation as a commander willing to lead from the front.
After Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Drapatyi served in southern Ukraine, where forces under his command helped halt Russia's advance towards Kryvyi Rih, and he later played a role in the campaign that forced Russian troops from Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro in November 2022. In February 2024 he became deputy chief of the General Staff responsible for military training, and three months later was sent to stabilise the front when Russian troops launched an offensive north of Kharkiv that briefly threatened Vovchansk. Appointing him Ground Forces commander in November 2024, Zelenskiy credited him with having 'effectively thwarted the Russian offensive operation' in the region.
In June 2025 Drapatyi submitted his resignation as Ground Forces commander after a Russian missile struck the 239th training ground, killing 12 soldiers and wounding more than 60. 'This is a conscious step dictated by my personal sense of responsibility for the tragedy,' he said, acknowledging that he had failed to ensure his orders on protecting personnel were carried out. Zelenskiy accepted his departure from the Ground Forces but appointed him commander of the Joint Forces two days later.
Drapatyi inherits an exhausted military struggling with manpower shortages, uneven training, continued Russian pressure along the front and a command system criticised for centralised decision-making and a reluctance to acknowledge mistakes.
