President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Tuesday, appointing Joint Forces Commander Mykhailo Drapatyi in his place. Zelenskyy thanked Syrskyi for leading Ukraine’s defense in Kyiv, the Kharkiv counteroffensive, and the Kursk operation, saying: “A significant path has been traveled,” according to Ukrainska Pravda.
The move followed the dismissal of reformist Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, which triggered days of street protests in Kyiv and other cities demanding Syrskyi’s removal, according to Euronews.
Drapatyi first earned his reputation in 2014, when, as a young major, he ordered his armored column to vault a militant barricade during a rescue operation in Mariupol, a moment captured on video that became one of the war’s earliest symbols of resistance, according to the Kyiv Independent.
A decade later, he stabilized the Kharkiv front during Russia’s May 2024 border offensive and mounted a counteroffensive near Lyptsi, before taking command of the Khortytsia sector in January 2025, one of the war’s most intense fronts, according to the Kyiv Independent.
He has also backed the “Drone Line,” a Defense Ministry initiative fusing reconnaissance drones, strike UAVs, and electronic warfare into a 10–15 kilometer kill zone that destroys Russian forces before they reach Ukrainian infantry, a contrast to Syrskyi’s more centralized, manpower-heavy doctrine, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
