A new commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been appointed. 4 facts about Mikhail Drapat

Mikhail Drapaty was appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on July 22. He has been in the service since 2004, having started his career in the mechanized forces. Since 2014, Drapaty participated in the fighting in the Donbas and became famous for his breakthrough from the Izvarinsky boiler. In 2025, he resigned from the post of commander of the ground forces due to strikes on the training ground. What else is the 43-year-old commander—in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine known in the Izvestia article.

Fact 1. He became famous after the breakthrough in Mariupol

• Mikhail Drapaty was born in 1982 in the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region. After completing his education at the Kharkov Institute of Tank Forces, in 2004 he joined the 72nd separate mechanized Brigade stationed in Bila Tserkva, Kiev region. By 2014, Drapaty headed the 2nd mechanized battalion of the brigade with the rank of major.

In the spring of the same year, the brigade took part in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Her units held the line around Mariupol. On May 9, Drapaty's battalion entered the city in the direction of the police station, where fighting was taking place between protesters and security forces. At that time, the streets were filled with barricades, but Drapaty, in his APC, broke through one of them at full speed and cleared the way for other vehicles. This episode appeared on a video that went viral on the Ukrainian Internet.

Fact 2. He brought the military out of the cauldron

• The next episode in Drapaty's military career was his exit from the Izvarinsky Boiler. In June 2014, the Ukrainian command attempted to occupy a section of the Ukrainian-Russian border in order to encircle the territories controlled by the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. The military only partially completed the task, keeping under control a long ledge up to 100 km long and 10 km wide. Soon, an operation began to encircle the Ukrainian units in this area.

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• At that time, Drapaty was leading a strike group that was surrounded in the Izvarina area. On the night of August 3 to 4, he went to break through the encirclement along with 260 soldiers and 30 pieces of equipment. His group covered 160 km and entered the territory controlled by Kiev. The losses of the Drapaty battalion amounted to two soldiers.

Fact 3. Criminal case in Russia

• Two criminal cases have been opened in Russia against Drapaty. The first case was initiated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on November 28, 2016 under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("The use of prohibited means and methods of warfare"). Drapat and other AFU commanders were charged with artillery attacks from heavy weapons on the civilian infrastructure of the DPR.

• In 2023, the Russian Interior Ministry put Drapaty on the wanted list for the shelling of the DPR and LPR in 2017-2019. According to the ministry, 154 people were killed and injured as a result of the strikes. At that time, Drapaty, along with Viktor Nikolyuk, commanded the operation of the united forces of Ukraine.

Fact 4. He resigned because of the impact on the landfill

In October 2024, Drapaty was promoted from Brigadier General to Major General. A month and a half later, he was appointed commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. He worked in this position for a little more than six months and left it because of the scandal with strikes at the Novomoskovsky training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

• Then, on March 1 and June 1, 2025, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation twice reported strikes by the Iskander-M complex at the training ground where the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were being trained. At least 150 Ukrainian servicemen, including 30 foreign instructors, were killed as a result. After the second blow, Drapaty submitted his resignation, which was granted two days later. After that, he was appointed Commander of the Joint Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and held this post until his transfer to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2026.