July 22 (Reuters) – Ukraine has recaptured 700 sq km (270 sq miles) of its territory this year, outgoing Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Wednesday, confirming he was leaving the top military job.
“I am handing over to my successor an army that is not only holding the defence but is also on the offensive,” Syrskyi said in a statement on Telegram.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that a young major general, Mykhailo Drapatyi, would replace Syrskyi after days of street protests.
The move followed the ousting in a wider government reshuffle last week of tech-savvy reformist defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, which brought out into the open the deep divisions in the Ukrainian defence leadership.
Syrskyi has held the commander in chief position since early 2024, after playing key roles in Kyiv’s defence in the early days of the war and in a lightning counteroffensive to retake swathes of the northeastern Kharkiv region in 2022.
But he has faced harsh criticism for a rigid command style which some service members have said resulted in unjustifiably high troop losses.
In his statement he highlighted his track record, including stopping a Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, and an operation in Russia’s Kursk region in 2024.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jan Harvey)
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