--- title: "Zelensky Weighs Removing Ukraine's Top Commander" description: "Ukraine's defense minister was dismissed after pressing the president to sack the commander-in-chief. Now, following protests in Kyiv, reports say the president is considering removing the commander after all. No decision has been announced." category: "World" category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world author: "Thomas Berger" published: 2026-07-20T10:33:12.000Z updated: 2026-07-20T10:33:12.000Z canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/zelensky-weighs-removing-ukraine-s-top-commander tags: ["ukraine", "zelensky", "military", "russia-ukraine-war"] --- # Zelensky Weighs Removing Ukraine's Top Commander Ukraine's defense minister was dismissed after pressing the president to sack the commander-in-chief. Now, following protests in Kyiv, reports say the president is considering removing the commander after all. No decision has been announced. The dispute at the top of Ukraine's war effort has now consumed a defense minister and may yet consume the country's most senior soldier. A caution before the detail: one part of this story is settled and the other is not. The dismissal of the defense minister has happened and was announced. The possible removal of the commander-in-chief is a matter of reporting based on unnamed officials, and no decision has been announced. ## What happened President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed his defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, in mid-July, after Fedorov had pressed him to replace the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi. Fedorov has since said publicly that he did make that case. According to [the Kyiv Independent](https://kyivindependent.com/fedorov-admits-trying-to-replace-syrskyi-before-his-dismissal-as-defense-minister/), he argued that "drastic personnel decisions" were needed to fight the war "asymmetrically, with minimal losses." The president declined, and removed the minister instead. Fedorov had been in the job around six months. He has since [accused General Syrskyi of fuelling divisions](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/16/dismissed-defence-minister-fedorov-accuses-ukraines-army-chief-of-fuelling-divisions-incom) and of incompetence, and said the general engineered his removal. General Syrskyi has responded by pointing to his record in the defense of the country in 2022 and arguing for focus on current operations, without addressing the specific accusations. ## The argument underneath The clash was not only personal. It reflected a real and long-running disagreement about how Ukraine's army should be commanded. Fedorov, who came to the defense ministry from a technology and reform background, favored a version of the Western doctrine known as mission command, in which subordinate officers are given an objective and considerable latitude in how to achieve it. General Syrskyi has been associated with a more centralized command structure inherited from the Soviet system, in which decisions concentrate at the top. Critics of the centralized approach argue that it discourages honest reporting from the front, because officers become reluctant to send bad news upward. Supporters argue that centralized control is what allows a smaller army to concentrate scarce resources at the decisive point. Both are serious positions, and the war has produced evidence that can be read either way. ## What changed after the sacking The dismissal produced something unusual in wartime Ukraine: public protest. [Hundreds gathered in Kyiv](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/16/hundreds-protest-in-kyiv-over-zelenskyys-dismissal-of-defence-minister), calling for the minister's reinstatement and the general's removal. Since then, [Bloomberg, citing the Financial Times, has reported](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-18/zelenskyy-may-fire-commander-syrskyi-after-protests-ft-reports) that the president is now considering dismissing General Syrskyi, provided a successor can be found who could take over without disrupting the defense of a front line running for well over a thousand kilometers. [Ukrainska Pravda reported](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/18/8044740/) that after speaking to both men, Mr Zelensky said decisions about the army would be "worked out." That is not an announcement of anything, and should not be read as one. ## Why civil-military relations matter here For a country at war, the question of who commands the army is not an administrative one. A wartime leader who cannot remove a failing commander has lost control of the war. A wartime leader who removes commanders under public pressure invites every subsequent decision to be contested in the street. Ukraine is currently somewhere between those two positions, and its allies are watching which way it settles, because command stability affects how weapons and intelligence are shared. There is also a timing problem. Any handover would take place while Russia maintains pressure in the east, and a new commander-in-chief would need weeks to take hold of a front that does not pause for the transition. That, more than the personalities, is the constraint the president is reported to be weighing. ## Sources - [Fedorov admits trying to replace Syrskyi before his dismissal as defense minister](https://kyivindependent.com/fedorov-admits-trying-to-replace-syrskyi-before-his-dismissal-as-defense-minister/) - [Zelenskyy speaks with Fedorov and Syrskyi: decisions on army will be worked out](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/18/8044740/) - [Zelenskyy may fire commander Syrskyi after protests, FT reports](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-18/zelenskyy-may-fire-commander-syrskyi-after-protests-ft-reports) - [Hundreds protest in Kyiv over Zelenskyy's dismissal of defence minister](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/16/hundreds-protest-in-kyiv-over-zelenskyys-dismissal-of-defence-minister) - [Dismissed defence minister Fedorov accuses Ukraine's army chief of fuelling divisions](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/16/dismissed-defence-minister-fedorov-accuses-ukraines-army-chief-of-fuelling-divisions-incom)