Who is Mykhailo Drapatyi, Ukraine's new commander-in-chief?

Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43, has succeeded Oleksandr Syrskyi as Ukraine’s commander‑in‑chief, becoming the third officer to hold the post since the start of Russia’s full‑scale invasion in 2022. His appointment has been welcomed by sections of the civilian population and the military. Protests that began in support of his friend, former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, later turned into calls for Syrskyi’s removal, with Drapatyi’s name being chanted by demonstrators. “There's nary amended idiosyncratic for this presumption nowadays successful Ukraine,” a Ukrainian worker told the BBC. Drapatyi’s career is rooted in years of service in post‑Soviet Ukraine. He graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Troops in 2004 and began his military career as a lieutenant. A decade later, footage of his infantry unit breaking through a makeshift barricade went viral. The incident occurred in May 2014, when pro‑Russian separatists controlled parts of eastern Ukraine and Drapatyi’s battalion entered Mariupol to rescue hostages held in the city’s police department. He recalled being told the barricades were higher than a metre and being asked what to do. “I said, let's instrumentality it by storm. This video flew astir the world,” he said in an interview. Later that year he received commendation for withdrawing encircled Ukrainian units from a border area of the Luhansk region. In 2021 Drapatyi returned to training for further operational and strategic instruction and was awarded a sword of honour as the top graduate in June 2021 by British ambassador Melinda Simmons. When Russia launched its full‑scale invasion in February 2022, Drapatyi served as deputy commander of joint forces. He commanded temporary task forces in various sectors of the front line, helping to push Russian troops back toward Kryvyi Rih and liberating settlements in Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk. By 2024 he headed the Ukrainian ground forces and led task forces in some of the most intense combat zones in the east. Less than a year later, a training facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region was struck by a Russian rocket, killing 12 soldiers and wounding 60. Drapatyi resigned on the same