President Dismisses Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi Following Public Criticism: What Comes Next?

On July 21, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Oleksandr Syrskyi would no longer serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The following day, on July 22, Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi was officially appointed as the new Commander-in-Chief, while Major General Ihor Skybiuk was appointed Chief of the General Staff.

The announcement came after six days of peaceful protests across dozens of Ukrainian cities. Members of the EAST SOS Charity Foundation team were also among those who joined the demonstrations.

Ukrainians exercised their constitutional right to peaceful assembly, made their position public, and the authorities responded. Even as the country faces russian armed aggression every day, Ukrainian society has shown that it can still question those in power and that the authorities can still listen. This is how a state governed by the rule of law works: disagreement can be expressed lawfully, and decisions can be reconsidered in response to public demand.

We would like to highlight that the protests remained peaceful. There were no recorded acts of violence and no attempts to destabilize the situation. That is to the credit of the people who took part.

But the demands have not yet been fully met.

The central public demand for the return of Mykhailo Fedorov as Minister of Defense remains unresolved. President Zelenskyy said he had offered the former minister another technology-related position in government, but that was not what society had called for. Yevhenii Khmara continues to act as Minister of Defense, and the Verkhovna Rada has still not held an extraordinary session to consider the issue.

Together with Ukrainian society, we are waiting for the minister’s return and for parliament to act through the constitutional procedure.

We also call on the new Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, Mykhailo Drapatyi, and the Chief of the General Staff, Ihor Skybiuk, to ensure that no serviceman or servicewoman is punished for expressing a civic position lawfully. Any disciplinary measures imposed for participation in peaceful assemblies must be reviewed. Our request to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor these cases remains in force.

Finally, we want to stress: changing officials is not the same as changing the system.

Transparency in personnel decisions, especially in the defense sector, must be standard practice and not something achieved only after a week of protests. Society should not have to take to the streets every time it needs answers about decisions that affect the lives of people both on the frontline and in the rear.