KYIV — After a week of nationwide protests over the direction of Ukraine’s military strategy in the ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian military has a new armed forces commander, Mykhailo Drapatyi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named Drapatyi to replace military chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, whom he fired late Tuesday.

“There is a difficult task ahead, so we are not making loud promises,” Drapatyi wrote in a Facebook post after his appointment was announced. “We are working with responsibility for our decisions and for the people who hold the front line and help Ukraine stand firm.”

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, new commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi looks on during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 20, 2026.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP

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Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP

The 43-year-old major general, widely viewed as a reformer, takes the reins at a time of political and military transition in Ukraine. He is also the face of a younger, post-Soviet generation of military leaders in Ukraine who are adapting more quickly to a tech-focused approach to the battlefield.

Drapatyi helped develop the use of the “drone line,” which involves creating a “kill zone” near the front line filled with drones that attack and surveil. He takes over from the 60-year-old Syrskyi, a mastermind of traditional warfare who came under fire after clashing with the country’s tech-savvy former defense minister.

Zelenskyy praised Syrskyi for “delivering results for Ukraine,” defending Kyiv early in the Russian full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022, and liberating parts of northeastern Ukraine later that year.

“We have come a long way,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. “Ukraine’s defense continues, and every warrior must be treated with dignity.”

Syrsykyi’s dismissal comes after Zelenskyy’s latest government reshuffle, which sparked mass protests across the country after he removed the popular, technology-focused defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, on July 15.

Oleksandr Syrsky, photographed in eastern Ukraine in June 2022, before he became Ukraine’s military chief.

Anastasia Vlasova/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

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Anastasia Vlasova/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

One protester in Kyiv, 42-year-old Mila Timchenko, said Syrskyi was experienced and integral to Ukraine’s defense early in the war, “but times have changed, the way wars are being fought has changed.”

Fedorov, 35, has been credited with pushing a drone-focused strategy that has turned the tide against a much larger and better-resourced Russia in a full-scale war that has lasted more than four years.

Over the last few months, Ukraine has used its own long-range drones to repeatedly strike Russia’s oil and gas facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has developed mid-range drones to attack supply routes for the Russian army in occupied parts of Ukraine, as well as vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian drones intercept the attack drones Russia launches at Ukrainian cities nearly every night. And land drones, or unmanned ground vehicles, are replacing infantry on the frontline.