Zelenskyy Fires Military Chief Syrskii After Protests
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- Zelenskyy dismissed military chief Oleksandr Syrskii and appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi to lead the armed forces, framing the move as a "reset" of Ukraine's defense against Russia's invading troops.
- The firing came after six days of protests in Kyiv over the removal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had accused Syrskii of blocking his reform efforts before his own dismissal last week.
- Syrskii, 60, was born in Soviet Russia and trained at a Red Army academy in Moscow but remained in Ukraine after the Soviet collapse, later earning the "Hero of Ukraine" title for commanding the defense of Kyiv in 2022 and planning the successful Kharkiv counteroffensive that recaptured Kupiansk and Izyum.
- More than 10 Ukrainian generals have been fired during the war, including Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov over corruption allegations (September 2023), military chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi (February 2024), and Joint Forces commander Yuriy Sodol, replaced by Andrii Hnatov in June 2024.
- Russia has conducted its own military reshuffles, dismissing Black Sea Fleet commander Vice Admiral Igor Osipov after the Moskva sinking (April 2022), Major-General Ivan Popov over battlefield criticism (July 2023), and aerospace forces chief Sergey Surovikin — known as "General Armageddon" — two months after the Wagner mutiny.
Why it matters: Zelenskyy is replacing his defense minister and his top general simultaneously after public protests, a rare double removal that signals civilian pressure is reshaping military leadership mid-war. Fedorov's public clash with Syrskii over reform efforts was the flashpoint, and Drapatyi inherits a force where more than 10 generals have already been cycled out.
