Explained: Why Ukraine Just Dismissed Two Top Generals

Zelenskyy Dismisses Two Ukrainian Officers, Describes Them As “Traitors” – On Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement announcing that he had dismissed two top Ukrainian generals, slamming them as “antiheroes.”

During his nightly address, the president said that Naumov Andriy Olehovych, the former head of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, and Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych, the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, had both been removed from their positions.

In the statement, Zelenskyy said that “another decision was made regarding antiheroes.”

“Now I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished,” he added.

“According to Article 48 of the Disciplinary Statute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, those servicemen among senior officers who have not decided where their homeland is, who violate the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people as regards the protection of our state, its freedom and independence, will inevitably be deprived of senior military ranks,” Zelenskyy continued. “Random generals don’t belong here!”

Zelenskyy did not provide details about what the two officials did, but the public firings are the first time that the Ukrainian president has fired officials helping organize his country’s military operations during the Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy Needs All the Help He Can Get

Not only does the Ukrainian president need the support of his own government and military officials, but also from the international community as the situation in Donbas becomes increasingly “difficult.”

In the same video address, Zelenskyy described how as Russian forces move east to the Donbas region, the situation is becoming harder for local people and Ukrainian troops.

Zelenskyy said that Russian forces are now building up their troops close to the city of Mariupol, which has been almost entirely destroyed by the Russian army. The city lies between the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula and Donbas, and the Russian bombardment of the Mariupol region has effectively created a land bridge between the two regions.

Zelenskyy warned that even as Russian troops withdraw from Kyiv and Western Ukraine, the fight is not over.

“There will be battles ahead,” he said in the address. “We still need to go down a very difficult path to get everything we want.”

Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.