Ukraine commanders rally behind Syrskyi as mass protests demand his dismissal

Navy Commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said “doubts about the Armed Forces of Ukraine are unacceptable during wartime” because the military is “perhaps the only institution that remains firmly on its feet despite everything.”

“The results make that clear. The enemy has failed to carry out a single one of its plans, while we regain our territory and destroy its strategic facilities almost every day. The enemy is losing several times as many personnel as we are. I therefore believe that only the president, as supreme commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has the right to assess the commander in chief’s performance as head of the Armed Forces. Stirring people up during wartime divides our society and plays into the enemy’s hands!” Neizhpapa said.

Air Assault Forces Commander Oleh Apostol wrote that “where discipline ends, chaos begins — and chaos always serves the enemy.”

“It is especially disheartening to hear sweeping judgments from people who have never issued combat orders, taken responsibility for the lives and health of personnel under their command, or made decisions on which the fate of a unit depended. Anyone who has never borne that responsibility has no moral right to condemn the senior military leadership wholesale — people who have carried the burden of this war alongside the armed forces from the beginning, made extraordinarily difficult decisions and answered for them not with words, but with their own honor, fate and lives,” Apostol added.

Criticism can be substantive, professional and well-founded, he said, but “humiliation, baseless accusations and public insults to the honor and dignity” of the country’s senior commanders are unacceptable.

“Such actions do not strengthen the military or bring victory closer — they undermine trust in the military command system, erode unity and benefit the enemy. Military honor demands responsibility not only for orders, but also for words,” the commander wrote.

Government reshuffle and protests

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering dismissing Syrskyi amid large-scale protests that began after Mykhailo Fedorov’s departure as defense minister, the Financial Times reported. Interviews with possible candidates to replace Syrskyi are expected to take place over the weekend, according to the newspaper.

Zelenskyy said on July 16 that Yevhenii Khmara, who headed the Alpha Special Operations Center of Ukraine’s SBU Security Service, would serve as acting defense minister in Serhii Koretskyi’s new government.

The president also confirmed a conflict between Fedorov and Syrskyi. The former minister said the commander in chief had blocked all his initiatives and issued ultimatums.

Hundreds of people protested on July 16 in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya and other cities, demanding Syrskyi’s resignation and Fedorov’s reinstatement. Demonstrators returned to the streets on July 17 and 18 in Kyiv, Lutsk, Mykolaiv and other regional capitals.

Volunteer Serhii Sternenko said on July 18 that Ukrainian brigade commanders had been ordered to record video messages supporting Syrskyi. It was his second such allegation. On July 17, Sternenko said senior commanders were pressuring military personnel not to support the protesters.

In response, Ukraine’s General Staff said it had not barred military personnel from speaking publicly about the protests. Presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn described the situation as “someone’s foolish attempt to control things too tightly,” the BBC reported.