Zelenskyy ousts top army chief in tilt toward military reformers

Volodymyr Verbianyi and Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Bloomberg News on Jul 22, 2026

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi in a major military shakeup, yielding to nationwide anger sparked by his ouster of a popular defense minister.

Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Joint Forces Commander Mykhailo Drapatyi would replace Syrskyi in an effort to end a power struggle between the veteran army chief and Mykhailo Fedorov, the youthful defense minister removed by the president last week.

Drapatyi sided publicly with Fedorov as thousands joined protests in Kyiv and other cities demanding that Zelenskyy reinstate the defense minister and remove Syrskyi. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Zelenskyy was considering Drapatyi, an admired wartime commander, as Ukraine’s new top army chief.

Drapatyi, 43, thanked Zelenskyy in a post on Facebook that also paid tribute to Syrskyi for strengthening the army. “I will work responsibly, with focus, and with respect for the people who are defending our country today,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s removal of Syrskyi, 60, a career military officer for 40 years, signaled a tilt toward a new generation of reform-minded leaders as Ukraine seeks to build on recent momentum in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion that’s in its fifth year. Many Ukrainians attributed recent successes to drone tactics championed by Fedorov, 35, after he became defense minister in January.

Zelenskyy said he’d also met with Fedorov and offered him a “worthy leadership position” to work on the development of Ukraine’s military technology, without elaborating.

Fedorov didn’t comment on the president’s offer in a post on Telegram that called Drapatyi’s appointment “a breath of fresh air and new hope in the struggle of free people for freedom and justice — a voice for change that could not be ignored.”

Following his dismissal by Zelenskyy last week, Fedorov told reporters that he’d clashed with Syrskyi on technological innovation and reforms to improve military efficiency. Syrskyi hit back this week in an article denying frictions with the defense minister.

Zelenskyy in a post on social media said he’d picked Drapatyi after meetings with top commanders and that the military General Staff would also be reconfigured.

“We have come a long way, Ukraine’s defense continues, and every warrior must be treated with dignity,” the president said in a statement.

Syrskyi issued a lengthy defense of his military record on Telegram on Wednesday, saying he’d been fighting Russian forces since the war first erupted in 2014.

“I am handing over to my successor an army that is not only holding the defense, but is also on the offensive — with initiative, with structure, with people who know how to beat the enemy,” he said. “I sincerely hope that this offensive will be continued.”

The overhaul is the biggest in Ukraine’s military leadership since Zelenskyy appointed Syrskyi to replace Valerii Zaluzhnyi as military commander-in-chief in 2024. That came amid mounting tensions between the president and his top army leader following the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive to roll back Russian forces from occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy on Tuesday praised Syrskyi for his contribution to the defense of Kyiv at the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion and for leading the counteroffensive to take back the northeastern Kharkiv region later that year. He also highlighted his leadership of the 2024 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the first time since World War II that Russian territory was occupied by a foreign military.

Drapatyi has a reputation as a military reformer focused on the wellbeing of his troops. He was appointed ground forces chief in late 2024 but resigned less than a year later, taking responsibility after a Russian strike on a training base killed 12 soldiers and wounded 60 others. Zelenskyy ordered him to remain in the ranks, appointing him to another command role.

Syrskyi, whose nicknames included “Butcher,” had faced increasing criticism in Ukraine for an old-school approach to warfare that relied on infantry assaults resulting in heavy casualties.

That criticism snowballed in recent weeks after a media investigation uncovered alleged abuse of conscripts in a military unit closely associated with Syrskyi. He defended the brigade, which denied wrongdoing.