Drapatyi will likely focus on reducing casualties, expert says
Acting Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Mykhailo Drapatyi (Photo: mod.gov.ua)
The new Commander-in-Chief, Mykhailo
Drapatyi, will most likely prioritize reducing personnel casualties as he
reconfigures the command structure of the Ukrainian military, Col. (Ret.) Dmytro
Kashchenko told NV Radio on July 29.
Kashchenko said Drapatyi may replace some commanders he views as ordering costly frontal assaults that do not spare troops. He predicted a scaling up of unmanned systems, greater medical support and training, and expanded use of mines and other obstacles delivered by artillery and drones, because those measures, he said, save lives.
“All management decisions will come from the need to preserve personnel,” said the officer.
“It will be a scaling up of the drone component, because unmanned systems best preserve personnel. It will be scaling up medical support and training, because that preserves personnel. It will be scaling up engineering training …, because mining saves the lives of our troops. The more we mine, the fewer enemy personnel will reach us.”
Kashchenko added that Drapatyi would make these decisions in coordination with the Defense Ministry, the Cabinet and the chiefs of the service branches.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on July 21
that Oleksandr Syrskyi was leaving his post as commander in chief of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine. Syrskyi had held the position since February 2024, after
Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s departure. Zelenskyy appointed 43-year-old Joint Forces
Commander Mykhailo Drapatyi as his replacement.
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