Ukrainian President Zelensky appoints new commander of military operation in Donbas
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dimissed Alexander Sirsky from the post of the commander of the Operation of United Forces and appointed Volodymyr Kravchenko to this position.
The decrees were published on the website of Ukrainian President on August 5.
Lieutenant General Kravchenko was the commander of the Operational Command North of Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2017.
Sirsky, who was dismissed from a position of the commander of United Forces Operation, is now appointed as the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Before his appointment to the Operation of United Forces, Sirsky was the head of sector C Staff and was one of the chief commanders of the Counter-terrorism Forces during the fights for Debaltseve in winter 2015. He had also coordinated the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from Debaltseve. In 2016, Sirsky became the head of the Joint Operational Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and in 2017 he became the commander of the Counter-terrorism unit until it was reformed to the Operation of the United Forces.
In early May 2019, the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Sirsky as a commander of the United Forces to replace Sergei Naev according to the planned rotation.