Zelensky Appoints High-Flying General to Critical Eastern Donbas Sector, Scene of Heavy Russia Losses
General Myhailo Drapaty rocketed from obscurity to number two in the Ukrainian army, in less than three years. His favorite tactics are drone swarms and maximizing Russian casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelensky named one of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) most popular and successful generals to command in the eastern Donbas region on Sunday, as Ukrainian and Russian forces were locked in heavy battles across the fighting line in the strategically-critical Pokrovsk sector.
He will take over leadership of the Khorytsia operational-strategic group, the AFU headquarters responsible for operations along a 300+ kilometer line of front that has been the scene of the war’s most intense fighting for more than a year, Zelensky said during a nightly evening national video statement. Drapaty already was commander of all AFU ground forces and will keep that job, the Ukrainian leader said.
Aged 42, Drapaty is among the most prominent of a “new generation” of younger Ukrainian general officers that had fought against Russian forces since 2014. He came to prominence and senior command thanks to battlefield successes combating Russia’s second, more massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Drapaty is usually credited for stitching together defenses in Ukraine’s chaotic southern sector in early 2022, and then planning and leading a counteroffensive that liberated the Kherson region later that year. In later operations along the Dnipro River his command pioneered mass use of FPV drones to control air space and dominate terrain behind Russian lines,.
Prior to appointment to ground forces command in Nov. 2024, Drapaty-led forces brought major Russian offensives to a halt in the northern Kharkiv and eastern Luhansk regions. Among rank and file Ukrainian service personnel, Drapaty is usually considered a careful commander focused on inflicting maximum enemy casualties, and a thorough planner prioritizing protecting troop lives over holding ground to the death.
Drapaty’s appointment came against a background of continued, heavy Russian assaults in the Khortysia area of responsibility. Per data made by Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) on Monday, over the past week Ukrainian forces engaged Russian forces 1,080 times in a “combat clashes”, of which nearly half – 488 – were aimed towards the city at the center of the Khortysia defensive network, the industrial city of Pokrovsk.
See Also:
Trump Team Not in Touch With Kremlin, Russian Officials Say
Russia Allying With Taliban Presents Global Security Threat
Up-Armored Ukrainian Leopard Tank Survives Multiple Russian FPV Drone Strikes
Lukashenko declares himself ‘winner’ of Belarus’s presidential vote blasted as sham
Lithuania, Estonia pledge 5% defense spending, following Trump’s call, FT reports
Watch:
