Zelenskyy Replaces Syrskii with Drapatyi to Lead Ukraine War Effort

In the Ukraine war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Colonel Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new top commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, replacing Oleksandr Syrskii, amid ongoing Russian losses and a war crimes investigation into the execution of a captured Ukrainian soldier.

New Armed Forces Commander Appointed

Ukrainian Colonel Mykhailo Drapatyi drove an armoured vehicle at breakneck speed through a barricade built by pro-Russian separatists who had just taken over the southeastern city of Mariupol in May 2014. [2] Another armoured vehicle followed Drapatyi’s to save police officers taken hostage by the separatists in an Interior Ministry building. [2] Several officers and separatists were killed in clashes and shootouts that day. [2] Drapatyi’s drive-through made him an instant YouTube sensation in Ukraine. [2] Weeks later, he led his unit out of a hopeless, lethal encirclement by Russia-backed separatists, losing only one soldier. [2] The now 43-year-old then rose to become the commander of Ukraine’s land forces and then joint forces. [2] On Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Drapatyi as the warring nation’s top commander who helms the general staff of armed forces. [2] Drapatyi has replaced Oleksandr Syrskii, a 60-year-old four-star general who prevented Kyiv’s takeover by tens of thousands of Russian servicemen in early 2022. [2] Months later, Syrskii outwitted and outmanoeuvred much larger Russian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and two years later, launched an out-of-blue Ukrainian invasion of the western Russian region of Kursk. [2] But Syrskii was schooled by the Communist-era military thought – in the 1980s, he studied at a Moscow military academy next to Russia’s future top commanders who fight him now. [2] Soldiers respected but feared him, nicknaming him “the Butcher” for his reported indifference to human losses. [2] Many within Ukraine’s military have cheered Drapatyi’s appointment. [2] “He is trusted very much. Those he has served with, who shared hardships with him, say that he cares about the soldiers, he takes reasonable risks,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera. [2] Drapatyi has been hailed as Ukraine’s first top general who prefers the Western war playbook to obsolete Soviet-era stratagems that require huge numbers of servicemen for massive breakthroughs that have become impossible because of omnipresent drones. [2] The new military chief also has robust credentials — even beyond his daredevil tank-drive in Mariupol in 2014. [2] In early 2022, he helped stop Russia’s advance on Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s rustbelt hometown in central Ukraine. [2] He has also argued that Russia shouldn’t exist in its current form. [2] Russia “can’t be called a neighbour, this nation with its leadership doesn’t have a right for existence,” he said in a 2023 interview. [2]

War Crime Investigation in Donetsk Oblast

Prosecutors are investigating yet another crime committed by the Russians – the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Donetsk Oblast. [1] Investigators have found that members of the Russian occupation forces captured a servicemember of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Yalta in the Komar hromada at 14:42 on 13 July 2026. [1] After interrogation, one of the Russians gave the order to execute the Ukrainian defender, and another shot and killed him with a firearm. [1] A pre-trial investigation has been launched into a criminal case concerning a war crime that resulted in a person's death (Article 438.2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). [1] Urgent investigative actions are being carried out to establish all the circumstances of the incident and identify Russian servicemembers involved in the crime. [1] "The killing of prisoners is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and is classified as a grave international crime." [1]

Ukrainian Colonel Mykhailo Drapatyi appointed as new commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. — Source: aljazeera

Daily Russian Combat Losses

Russia has lost 1,410 soldiers killed and wounded and one aircraft over the past day. [3] The total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 24 July 2026 are estimated to be as follows: approximately 1,436,100 (+1,410) military personnel, 12,201 (+10) tanks, 25,000 (+6) armoured combat vehicles, 46,646 (+76) artillery systems, 1,968 (+7) multiple-launch rocket systems, 1,516 (+1) air defence systems, 439 (+1) fixed-wing aircraft, 354 (+0) helicopters, 2,006 (+12) ground robotic systems, 425,240 (+1,652) operational-tactical UAVs, 4,938 (+2) cruise missiles, 34 (+0) ships/boats, 2 (+0) submarines, 124,787 (+544) vehicles and fuel tankers, and 4,454 (+1) special vehicles and other equipment. [3] The information is being confirmed. [3] A Russian Su-57 fighter jet crashed in Moscow Oblast on 23 July. [3]

International Diplomatic Outlook

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the Trump administration is poised to help end the "senseless war" in Ukraine but acknowledged there is no quick path to a deal, saying diplomacy will require sustained effort and new ideas. [4]

Broader Global Strategic Impact

Ukraine by its resistance to Russian aggression can determine the outcome of the global confrontation between the democratic world and authoritarian regimes. [5] This opinion was expressed by American national security experts Mark Tot and Jonathan Sweet in a column for The Hill. [5] The authors believe that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine from the very beginning was part of a broader conflict that goes far beyond the Russian-Ukrainian war. [5] In their opinion, Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang act as partners, while Western countries have long viewed Russian aggression as a separate regional conflict. [5] Experts note that Washington previously did not link the war in Ukraine with China's actions around Taiwan, North Korea's military provocations and the development of Iran's nuclear program. [5] In their opinion, the situation was not changed even by the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. [5] At the same time, Ukraine, according to the authors, from the very beginning assessed the scale of the threat more broadly. [5] They recalled the warnings of President Volodymyr Zelensky about the largest security crisis in Europe since the Cold War. [5] According to analysts, the Ukrainian Defense Forces over the years of the war not only restrained Russian offensives, but also inflicted significant losses on Russia, including thanks to long-range strikes on military and strategic targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. [5] The authors believe that Ukraine's successes are already influencing the global situation. [5] Russia, according to their assessment, is forced to reduce its presence in the Middle East and Africa, and China is more carefully analyzing possible scenarios of action regarding Taiwan, taking into account the experience of the modern war in Ukraine and the widespread use of drones. [5] "The third world war has not yet been won. But Ukraine makes victory accessible to the West - if only Washington and Brussels take advantage of this opportunity," the analysts summarized. [5]

Internal Ukrainian Military and Political Context

However, Drapatyi’s appointment in itself does not overcome contradictions between the General Staff of the Armed Forces that reports to the Ministry of Defence, and the ministry itself, Romanenko said. [2] This system dates back to the Soviet era and is similar to Russia’s, while in NATO member states, the General Staff and the Defence Ministry report to their heads of state independently. [2] “This systemic contradiction will remain [in Ukraine] until we finish the reforms according to NATO standards,” Romanenko said. [2] Kyiv has been trying to join NATO for years – even though these days, many Ukrainians joke that it is NATO that should beg to “join Ukraine’s armed forces” because of their pioneering achievements in drone and robotic warfare. [2] Some of these achievements are attributed to Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was fired by Zelenskyy last week. [2] The 35-year-old civilian who had served as Ukraine’s “minister of digital transformation” was known for his Silicon Valley-style approach to warfare. [2] After only six months of service, Fedorov started a highly effective campaign of mid and long-range drone strikes that bled Russia’s supply routes and destroyed air defence systems, oil refineries and fuel depots. [2] Fedorov was sacked after clashes with former top general Syrskii, and the move led to massive, daily protests in Kyiv and key Ukrainian cities. [2] “This is mostly personal and political,” Romanenko said about Zelenskyy, who started seeing Fedorov as a political rival who could compete with him in the post-war presidential vote. [2] Fedorov’s sacking, however, was an unpopular step that only boosted his approval ratings – and left the public wondering about Zelenskyy’s motives. [2] “People don’t understand it, there are no explanations, the presidential administration thinks there shouldn’t be any, and it leads to rallies, tensions,” Romanenko said. [2] Since then, Fedorov was offered — and declined — the job of a presidential adviser in charge of technological reforms in the military. [2] “Fedorov felt that what he did was important, effective, that there were enough people behind him,” Romanenko said. [2] “In such conditions, complex matters are not solved in a simple way, and when one attempts to do so, the consequences are difficult.” [2] Moscow has claimed to be indifferent to Drapatyi’s appointment. [2] “I don’t think that this would lead to any changes on the front lines,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, claiming that Russia’s “successes” would go on. [2] “Our armed forces keep advancing along the entire front line,” he said. [2] “And because of these perturbations the Kyiv regime is being shaken from within.” [2] But observers say changes in the direction of the war are imminent – if not immediate. [2] The shifts depend on factors such as Ukraine’s mobilisation campaign that has so far been disastrous, technological breakthroughs and Russia’s actions, according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University and an analyst of the Russia-Ukraine war. [2] “So, let’s not guess and see by the year’s end,” he told Al Jazeera. [2] The appointment has somewhat calmed the protesters rallying against Fedorov’s dismissal. [2] “But Drapatyi’s appointment only partially removes political tensions,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. [2] “The Fedorov problem remains, although it may have become smaller, less acute.” [2] Fedorov congratulated Drapatyi on his appointment and wrote on Telegram that it brings about “a new wind and a new hope”. [2]

Ukrainian Colonel Mykhailo Drapatyi appointed as new commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. — Source: ukrainskapravda

What to watch next: Observers say changes in the direction of the war are imminent if not immediate, with shifts depending on Ukraine’s mobilisation campaign, technological breakthroughs and Russia’s actions, and analysts advise to see by the year’s

Further Reading

• Ukraine War Map