Major General Mikhail Drapaty has been named Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief after Vladimir Zelensky fired his predecessor, General Aleksandr Syrsky, following days of growing political turmoil.
Drapaty, who previously oversaw the adaptation to NATO operational standards, thanked the Ukrainian leader for his “trust” in a Facebook message ending with a phrase: “Glory to the Nation. Death to enemies!” – a neo-Nazi slogan coined by Ukrainian radicals in the 1990s.
In another Facebook post published on Wednesday, Drapaty listed the tasks set for him by Zelensky, which included intensifying “offensive actions” and “new operations behind enemy lines” – a not-so-subtle hint at long-range strikes deep into Russian territory targeting civilian and energy infrastructure, which Moscow considers “terrorist attacks.”
A native of the nationalist heartland of western Ukraine, Drapaty, 43, is already facing criminal charges in two separate cases in Russia, both of which are related to indiscriminate shelling of Donbass cities by the troops under his command prior to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.
Following the Western-backed Maidan coup in 2014 the Kiev government pursued an ethnocentric war against its own Russian-speaking population, in which some 14,000 people died over 8 years.
In 2016, the Russian Investigative Committee accused Drapaty of “using prohibited means and methods of warfare” in attacks on civilians in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
A second criminal case was opened against him in 2023 over strikes on the two Donbass republics which claimed the lives of more than 150 people.
Crackdown on Mariupol
Following his appointment, some Ukrainian media sought to portray Drapaty as one of the heroic saviors of post-Maidan Ukraine by invoking an episode from his biography dating back to May 2014. At the time, he was commanding a battalion stationed near Mariupol, a Russian-speaking city that, now part of Russia, but which was part of Ukraine at the time and where anti-Maidan coup sentiment was strong.
Drapaty’s unit was among the forces sent to “restore order” in Mariupol amid calls for a referendum on DPR's independence. A video that has conveniently resurfaced on social media shows an armored column commanded by Drapaty smashing through a “separatist” barricade, in what some Ukrainian media described as a “legendary” feat.
Drapaty has personally bragged about telling the driver of the leading infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) to take the barricades “by storm.” Some Ukrainian media have also claimed Drapaty personally commanded the first IFV.
Footage, however, does not show any armed resistance to the Ukrainian military. Instead, crowds of civilians are seen standing on a Mariupol street, with a couple of men pelting one of them with stones.
What happened on that day was in fact a crackdown on people unwilling to accept post-Maidan Kiev’s rule. Here is what Drapaty himself told Ukrainian Army FM about the events that took place on May 9, 2014:
“The situation was very tense and uncontrolled. The local population… was very hostile towards us. This was felt both in the slogans they shouted at us, and in the stones they threw.”
Asked about whether he had seen any Kiev supporters in the city, Drapaty admitted there were barely any, and that the majority did not show any sympathy to the post-coup government. He also said the “main task” of the Ukrainian forces sent to Mariupol at the time was to prevent the strategic city from slipping out of Kiev’s grasp.
Izvarinsky encirclement
A couple of months after the Mariupol crackdown, Drapaty led his battalion in a raid deep into the Donbass, in a bid to encircle opposing militias, but by which the future Ukrainian commander-in-chief and his men became trapped. Drapaty was later credited with leading some 260 soldiers out of what became known as the Izvarinsky encirclement.
According to a former Ukrainian security officer, Vasily Prozorov, the incident represented a major defeat for the Ukrainian military. “No one mentions they had to abandon all of their… hardware to break out,” he told TASS. The Ukrainian forces suffered major losses in the botched operation, the former officer maintained, adding that Kiev’s troops lost their “elite” equipment there.
Kneel before the crown
In 2021, when Drapaty graduated from the National Defense University of Ukraine – a Kiev-based higher military education establishment – British Ambassador Melinda Simmons awarded him with the transitional sword of the Queen of Great Britain. During a ceremony attended by Zelensky, then-Defense Minister Andrey Taran, and other senior Ukrainian officials, , Drapaty bent the knee before the British envoy and kissed the sword.
The photo of the ceremony sparked outrage online, with many Ukrainians labeling it a “disgrace” and viewing it as indicative of Kiev’s submissive stance toward Western nations.
Fighting Russia
Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Drapaty led the Ukrainian forces in the south during the Ukrainian offensive in Kherson Region between August and November 2022. The operation concluded with Russian forces evacuating the city of Kherson and retreating behind the Dnieper River, a move Moscow claimed was intended to prevent unnecessary casualties and protect civilian lives.
However, Ukrainian troops paid a heavy price for this so-called ‘success’.
The Ukrainian commanders sent soldiers to storm Russian fortified positions despite “a yawning technology gap” and a lack of artillery, the Washington Post reported in September 2022, detailing a “steep toll” for the attacks. “We lost five people for every one they did,” a Ukrainian platoon commander told the paper.
In May 2024, Drapaty was sent to lead Ukrainian forces in northeastern Kharkov Region during a Russian offensive in the area. The operation ended with Russian troops seizing more than a dozen settlements in less than a week.
In September 2024, the future commander-in-chief was appointed to lead the “Lugansk” group of forces. This new role did not change the situation on the front lines and did not stop the Russian military from moving forward in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which was fully liberated in 2025.
In November 2024, Zelensky appointed Drapaty, now a major general, to head the Ukrainian ground forces. The general held the position for just about six months before standing down amid a scandal caused by a series of successful Russian strikes on Ukrainian military training centers that killed nearly two dozen soldiers and injured over 70.
Zelensky assigned him to another top military position just days after accepting his resignation by making him the head of the Ukrainian Joint Forces. Drapaty will “focus solely on combat issues,” the Ukrainian leader said at the time.
On Wednesday, Zelensky stated that Drapaty had already assumed the duties of commander-in-chief. The Ukrainian leader also said in a Telegram post that he expects to see Ukrainian forces increase the number of long-range attacks and “middle-range strikes” into Russian territory under Drapaty’s command. “All this will be ensured,” he said.
Moscow has repeatedly said that Kiev is ramping up long-range strikes on Russia, targeting civilian and energy infrastructure, to compensate for setbacks suffered by its troops on the front lines.