Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskyy dismisses top Ukrainian military commander

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the dismissal of a senior Ukrainian military commander who has been leading Ukrainian forces in the war. No reason was given for the commander’s dismissal.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy’s office issued a one-line decree announcing the dismissal of senior military commander Eduard Moskalyov as the commander of the joint forces of Ukraine that are currently engaged in the battles in the eastern Donbas region. There was no reason given for Moskalyov’s dismissal.

Moskalyov has overseen the Ukrainian forces in the war since March 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion in February. The joint forces’ Facebook and Twitter accounts did not mention Moskalyov’s dismissal.

Zelenskyy mentioned Moskalyov during his daily address Friday last week when citing the military commanders he had spoken to.

Moskalyov’s dismissal comes as Russian forces are focused on capturing territories in the two regions that make up Donbas, which Moscow claims to have annexed. The heaviest fighting has been taking place in the key city of Bakhmut as pro-Moscow forces are engaging in repeated offensives despite suffering heavy amounts of casualties, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

The Ukrainian armed forces general staff previously said in a Facebook post that Russian forces had been unsuccessful in their attacks on Sunday.

On Monday, the Ukrainian defense ministry confirmed that its forces shot down 11 Iran-made Shahed drones out of 14 that were launched overnight, the British defense ministry said in its intelligence update on Wednesday. Kyiv City Military Administration chief Serhii Popko said nine of the 11 drones that were shot down were within the Ukrainian capital’s airspace while three additional drones were said to be shot down in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine.

The ministry noted that prior to the recent drone attack, there have not been drone attacks since February 15, suggesting that the decrease in drone attacks by Moscow meant that it was running out of its supply of drones and would likely restock.

“Due to the vector of the attack, these Shahed-UAVs were highly likely launched from the Bryansk Oblast, Russia. Previously, the only observed launch site since mid-December 2022 was from the Krasnodar region across the Sea of Azov. A second launch site would give the Russians a different axis of attack, closer to Kyiv,” said the ministry.