President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has replaced the commander of the Joint Forces Command of Ukraine’s military, after a well-known soldier accused the commander of causing mass casualties in the war with Russia.
In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskiy said Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol had been replaced by Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov, without giving a reason for the shake up.
Sodol was removed shortly after Bohdan Krotevych, the leader of Ukraine’s revered Azov regiment, accused the general of causing significant military setbacks and major losses in personnel.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Krotevych did not identify Sodol by name, but said an unnamed general “has killed more Ukrainian soldiers than any Russian general”.
“All the military personnel now understand who I am talking about because 99% of the military hate him for what he does,” Krotevych said, adding that he had appealed to Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation (SBI) to conduct an investigation into Sodol’s activities.
After the announcement of Sodol’s dismissal, Krotevych wrote, “Hnatov is a very good officer. I hope the news at the front will get better.”
Sodol was appointed last February during a controversial military reshuffle that saw Col Gen Oleksandr Syrsky replace Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, a popular commander whose relations with Zelenskiy had become strained.
Ukraine has recently made several military changes as Kyiv’s forces aim to shift the tide, and its troops have been largely on the defensive.
Sodol led Ukraine’s eastern and southern land forces, which have been grappling with Russia’s advancing offensive, as it has been gaining momentum in recent months.
Hnatov had served as deputy commander of the southern theatre of operations since 2022 and played a leading role in recapturing much of the southern Kherson region from Russian invaders.
Ukrainian military observers welcomed Sodol’s dismissal. Illia Ponomarenko, the former defence reporter at the Kyiv Independent, described Sodol as an “extremely unpopular high-ranking military commander with a notoriously gruesome service”.
In a boost to Kyiv, EU officials late on Monday night announced that the bloc had approved a first tranche of up to €1.4bn (£1.1bn) in military aid for Ukraine coming from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets. Separately, the US is expected to announce that it is sending an additional $150m (£118m) in munitions to Ukraine.
