““I instructed today to strengthen the command structure of our troops in Donetsk region””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Today I ordered to strengthen the command structure of our troops in Donetsk region – Major General Mykhailo Drapaty has been sent to lead the operational-strategic grouping of troops “Khortytsia”. These are the most brutal areas of fighting,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
At the same time, according to him, Drapaty will retain the authority of the commander of the Ground Forces – “the largest part of our Armed Forces, and this will help to combine the combat work of the army with the proper training of brigades.”
The President added that the commander of the Combined Forces of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Khortytsya Defense Forces, Major General Andriy Hnatov, has been sent to the General Staff to the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff.
“His task is a new level of training of operational headquarters and a higher quality of interaction between headquarters and the front. We discussed these and some other changes with head of state Oleksandr Syrsky – tasks have been set at all levels,” the president added.
On November 29, 2024, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, following the results of the meeting of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, announced that Mykhailo Drapaty was appointed as the new commander of the Ground Forces.
With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Drapaty headed the “South” operational group. He is known as one of the commanders who led the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region. In February 2024, he was appointed deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. And in May, he was appointed commander of the “Kharkiv” OTUV.