Zelensky replaced Oleksandr Syrskyi with Mykhailo Drapaty amid growing criticism of the former commander.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the dismissal of Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and the appointment of General Mykhailo Drapaty as his replacement will not affect the situation on the front line.
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“I do not believe this will bring about any changes on the front line. The situation there is well known: Our Armed Forces continue offensive operations along the entire front as part of the special military operation,” he said.
Peskov said the change in Ukraine’s military leadership reflects an evident upheaval within the “Kiev regime, which is faltering from within. That can be seen with the naked eye,” he said.
On Tuesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Syrskyi’s dismissal and appointed Drapaty, a younger military officer regarded as a modernizer of the army’s structures, as his replacement.
El nuevo comandante en jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas de Ucrania, el multihomicida MYKHAILO DRAPATY, es quién arrolló con un BMP a civiles indefensos en Mariúpol en 2014, cuando los habitantes habían levantado barricadas para protestar contra el golpe de Estado en el Maidán.… pic.twitter.com/msWfQOULM3— HISTORIA Y GEOPOLÍTICA
(@Geopolitik_2030) July 22, 2026
The text reads, “The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the mass murderer Mykailo Drapaty, is the one who ran over defenseless civilians with a BMP in Mariupol in 2014, when residents had erected barricades to protest the Maidan coup. Drapaty participated in torture and reprisals against the city’s population. Hundreds of people disappeared or were executed. Russia accused him, in absentia, of organizing bombings against towns in Donbas in 2017 and 2019. Those attacks resulted in the deaths of 154 civilians.”
Since last week, Syrskyi had been facing a wave of criticism that intensified when then-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused him of authoritarianism and of failing to adapt to the new realities of warfare shaped by the prominence of drones.
Syrskyi defended himself against the criticism by noting that under his command the Armed Forces had achieved their current level of technological advancement, and he indirectly reproached Fedorov for having an unrealistic view of warfare.
On Tuesday, the Russian Interior Ministry’s database placed Drapaty on its wanted list. Previously, the Russian Investigative Committee filed criminal charges against him.
Drapaty is accused of commanding the Joint Forces Operation between 2017 and 2019, during which Ukrainian forces allegedly carried out shelling attacks on settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that resulted in 154 people being killed or injured.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – Xinhua
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