Lieutenant General Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43, has been appointed commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Within Ukrainian military circles, he was regarded as one of the country’s most capable commanders and was repeatedly sent to difficult sectors of the front.
Drapatyi first gained widespread recognition on May 9, 2014. In video footage that circulated at the time, an infantry fighting vehicle under his command breaks through separatist barricades in Mariupol. He was then commanding a battalion of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade.
Eyewitnesses
The episode is once again being widely discussed on Telegram channels, though the outcome of the fighting receives less attention. Ukrainian forces were forced to leave Mariupol, after which the city remained effectively under separatist control until mid-June 2014.
That summer, Drapatyi’s unit was encircled near Izvaryne, close to the Russian border. He managed to lead 260 service members out of the encirclement.
At the beginning of the full-scale war, he was serving as deputy commander of the Armed Forces’ Joint Forces for troop training. In March 2022, Drapatyi became deputy commander of the Ground Forces’ Operational Command South and took charge of Operational Group South. He was involved, among other things, in halting the Russian advance on Kryvyi Rih.
The general later commanded the Kherson group, which participated in the liberation of the right-bank part of the Kherson region.
In May 2024, after Russia launched an offensive in the border areas of the Kharkiv region, Drapatyi was appointed commander of the Kharkiv Operational-Tactical Group. Under his leadership, the Russian advance was halted.
From November 2024 until June 2025, Drapatyi commanded the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After a series of Russian strikes on training centers, he submitted his resignation, effectively holding commanders responsible for inadequate measures to protect personnel. At the time, the general publicly denounced a culture of “mutual cover-ups and impunity” in the military.
Reports subsequently emerged of a deepening conflict between Drapatyi and Oleksandr Syrskyi. The general was not, however, dismissed from the military. After speaking with Volodymyr Zelensky on June 3, 2025, he was appointed commander of the Armed Forces’ Joint Forces, and on October 20 he also took charge of the group responsible for defending the Kharkiv region.
The disagreements with Syrskyi reportedly persisted. Drapatyi was considered the informal leader of an internal military opposition to the commander-in-chief. Fedorov said Syrskyi had issued the general three reprimands.
Earlier this year, Drapatyi also publicly opposed Zelensky’s decision to dismiss Vasyl Maliuk as head of the Security Service of Ukraine. After Fedorov resigned as defense minister, the general was among the first to endorse his position.
Drapatyi has been awarded the title Hero of Ukraine and several classes of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
He was born on November 21, 1982, in Kamianets-Podilskyi, in the Khmelnytskyi region. After finishing school, he enrolled at the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Forces named after the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, graduating in 2004. He began his military career as a platoon commander in the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade.
Mykhailo Drapatyi is married. He and his wife have a son, Ivan, and a daughter, Anna.
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