{"id":516292,"date":"2026-07-20T10:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/the-future-of-the-ukrainian-army-chief-up-in-the-air-following-the-crisis-over-the-ministers-dismissal\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:40:27","slug":"the-future-of-the-ukrainian-army-chief-up-in-the-air-following-the-crisis-over-the-ministers-dismissal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/the-future-of-the-ukrainian-army-chief-up-in-the-air-following-the-crisis-over-the-ministers-dismissal\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of the Ukrainian Army chief, up in the air following the crisis over the minister’s dismissal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lviv (Ukraine).-<\/em><\/strong> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> is holding talks with the country’s top military commanders amid calls for the dismissal of the head of the Ukrainian Army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, as he seeks a way out of the crisis caused by the removal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirski’s departure is the main demand of the protests that have taken place in recent days in Ukraine, as protesters see him as the main obstacle to the reforms in the Army that Fedorov advocated, after the existence of a dispute between the two was revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Amid growing anticipation of changes in the Army’s leadership, Serhii Sternenko, who was an advisor to the former Minister of Defense until last week, stated this Monday that Zelensky will make a decision regarding Syrskyi’s future either today or this Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources from the Presidential Office and the Government told the Ukrainian portal Liga.net this Monday that Zelensky is examining about 11 officials as potential successors to the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, who has held the position since February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussions about Syrskyi<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This Monday, the Ukrainian president continued with a series of interviews with high-ranking military officials and met with the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Volodymyr Horbatiuk; with the commander of the Third Assault Brigade, Andriy Biletsky; with the head of the “Khartia” Brigade, Ihor Obolenskyi; with the head of the Air Assault Forces, Oleh Apostol; and with the popular general Mykhailo Drapati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter, considered a possible replacement for Syrskyi, was one of several high-ranking officers who, following Fedorov’s dismissal, publicly acknowledged the existence of systemic problems within the Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syrskyi’s methods have also been criticized by some former soldiers, such as veteran Dmytro Koziatskyi, one of the co-organizers of the protests in Kyiv, and the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, Bohdan Krotevych, has denounced that the alleged emphasis Syrskyi places on infantry assaults has caused “thousands of lives lost” on the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some renowned officers have publicly supported Syrskyi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Monday, the Air Force commander, General Anatolii Kryvonozhko, joined the head of the Air Assault Forces, Oleh Apostol, and the top official of the Navy, Oleksii Neizhpapa, in recognizing Fedorov’s contribution to the modernization of the Armed Forces and in their simultaneous support for Syrskyi, while calling for tensions to be lowered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Open confrontation and a tense internal situation in the country: this undermines trust in the military and political leadership both within Ukrainian society and among foreign partners, which may have negative consequences,” Krivonozhko emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, Fedorov’s former advisor, Sternenko, claimed that Syrskyi’s team has asked brigade commanders to record statements in support of the still-serving Army chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expectations for changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“There are certainly going to be changes,” wrote former minister Fedorov on his social media after having a conversation with Zelensky on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a dialogue. I believe everything is going to be resolved,” he stated, in a week in which daily protests have continued to attract thousands of demonstrators, mostly young people, in dozens of Ukrainian cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If people are taking to the streets, it means they see a problem or feel the need to be heard. And the worst thing that can be done in such a situation is to pretend that nothing is happening,” wrote Vira Shvartzkop, a civilian volunteer from the city of Rozishche (west), on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key demand of the protesters is the continuation of military reforms, protester Yulia Oliyar, many of whose friends are fighting on the front lines, told EFE in Lviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A democratic state cannot respond to a systemic conflict by eliminating one of its participants without explaining the reasons, the responsibility of the parties, and what the future action plan is,” also stressed a statement from the Ukrainian Catholic University this Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a symbolic protest will be held this Monday to reiterate demands to the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want to clearly convey our position to the president: if Syrskyi has not been dismissed by Friday, July 24, and Fedorov has not been nominated for the position of Minister of Defense, we will launch an indefinite general protest,” he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lviv (Ukraine).- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is holding talks with the country’s top military commanders amid calls for the dismissal of the head of the Ukrainian Army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, as he seeks a way out of the crisis caused by the removal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Sirski’s departure is the main demand of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":516293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[43601,44182,16885,40853,41539,44440],"class_list":["post-516292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-breakingnews","tag-cover","tag-crisis","tag-thetruthnewspaper","tag-ukrainian","tag-ukrainian-army"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2aji","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cnne-1560381-valerii-zaluzhnyi.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cnne-1560381-valerii-zaluzhnyi.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}