Drapatyi named Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief: What is known about him

“I have decided that Mykhailo Drapatyi will become the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Together with Mykhailo, Yevhenii Khmara, and Pavlo Palisa, we determined how the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should be reconfigured,” Zelenskyy said.

What is known about Drapatyi?

Maj. Gen. Drapatyi is known in part for his role in the 2014 liberation of occupied Mariupol. On his order, on May 9 that year, Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicles broke through checkpoints in the occupied city. Drapatyi himself was in the first vehicle to cross the barriers.

In March 2022, he led the defense of Kryvyi Rih, where Russian forces were stopped and the line of contact stabilized. Later, as a brigadier general, he headed the Kherson operational grouping and was among the commanders involved in the liberation of the western bank of Kherson Oblast.

In February 2024, Drapatyi was appointed deputy chief of the General Staff. In May, amid Russia’s offensive in northern Kharkiv Oblast, he also became commander of the Kharkiv operational-tactical grouping, replacing Yuriy Halushkin. In late January 2024, he was also appointed commander of the Khortytsia operational-strategic grouping while serving at the same time as commander of the Land Forces.

In November 2024, Drapatyi became commander of Ukraine’s Land Forces. At the time, he promised a “large-scale” transformation of the branch, naming people, technology and transparent management as his priorities. He also said the Land Forces should become “elite.”

After Russian forces carried out a missile strike on the Cherkaske training ground in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, however, Drapatyi took responsibility and resigned. After speaking with President Zelenskyy, he said he would remain in the military. In June 2025, he was appointed commander of the Joint Forces.

What preceded the decision?

Talk of replacing Oleksandr Syrskyi, who has led the Armed Forces of Ukraine since early 2024, intensified amid mass protests following the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

According to media reports, Zelenskyy explained Fedorov’s dismissal by saying he had a systemic conflict with Syrskyi “that could not be resolved.” During a meeting with the Servant of the People faction, Zelenskyy reportedly said that “ideally both Fedorov and Syrskyi should be dismissed, but he cannot do that right now.”

After leaving office, Fedorov held a public news conference in which he confirmed the conflict with the commander-in-chief. He said he had proposed replacing both Syrskyi and Chief of Staff Andriy Hnatov, but alleged that Syrskyi had “issued an ultimatum” and “figured out how to split the country.”

“But we ran into a situation where all the initiatives we proposed started being blocked, and Syrskyi is not ready to openly speak face-to-face about problems,” Fedorov said. ”He is ready to go to private meetings, scheme, think that someone ordered some media campaign [...]. This led to the fact that he effectively issued an ultimatum [...] Instead of figuring out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically — which is the commander-in-chief’s task — he figured out how to split the country.”

After that statement, calls for Syrskyi’s resignation grew louder at protests against Fedorov’s dismissal. In response, commanders from Ukraine’s Defense Forces began issuing public statements in support of the commander-in-chief and urged people not to “politicize the Armed Forces.”

The Financial Times reported that Zelenskyy gathered military officers to hear their assessments of the battlefield situation and interview candidates to replace Syrskyi. Over several days, the president spoke with corps commanders and other senior officers.