Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed two decrees on 22 July, dismissing Anatoliy Hnatov as chief of the general staff and naming Ihor Skybiuk in his place1. Skybiuk is the major general who commanded the 80th Air Assault Brigade during the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, the last time Ukraine moved a front at speed. It is the last of three changes atop Ukraine's war command in eight days.
The overhaul ran from top to bottom. Zelenskyy sacked Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on 15 July, a decision that put protesters on the streets of eight cities for days and handed the ministry to acting security-service officer Yevhen Khmara. On 21 July he dismissed Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who had led the armed forces since February 2024, and appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi in his place. Hnatov's removal a day later completed the sweep, with one of the three chairs, the defence ministry, still legally contested.
Read one way, rebuilding the entire command mid-war signals disarray under public pressure. Read another, Zelenskyy has installed proven combat commanders precisely as Moscow conditions its public for an autumn manpower surge after the September Duma elections. He has reshuffled top command before without a battlefield break: the February 2024 removal of Valeriy Zaluzhnyi brought no collapse, though the man who replaced him then, Syrskyi, has now been removed in turn.
