FT: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth forced early resignation of US Army commander in Europe who coordinated aid to Ukraine

Senior General Christopher Donaghue, who leads US Army Europe and Africa and played a key role in supporting Ukraine, will retire early.

The Financial Times writes about this.

According to the publicationʼs sources familiar with the situation, the general will announce his resignation on Wednesday, June 24. He will officially complete his military service in July.

Donaghue became the latest high-ranking US military official to leave his post as a result of a personnel purge being carried out by the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The FT notes that Donaghue is being forced to resign just two months after Hegseth fired General Randy George as chief of staff of the US Army, which caused outrage among officers at the Pentagon.

A four-star general, Donaghue has extensive combat experience. He has served in Iraq, Syria and other conflict zones. Donaghue is also known as the last American service member to leave Afghanistan when the US troop withdrawal was announced in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden.

In recent years, the general has played an important role in coordinating American military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The reasons for Donaghueʼs removal from his position at the US Department of Defense have not been officially announced. But Pete Hegseth had previously openly criticized the way the Biden administration organized the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and initiated an investigation into the circumstances of this operation.

Journalists say Donaghueʼs resignation will trigger another wave of upheaval in the US military, which is highly respected for the important combat positions he held for two decades.

Several former senior US military officials told the FT that Hegsethʼs personnel policies created an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear in the Armed Forces — right up to the top leadership.

Over the past year and a half, the Secretary of Defense has fired a number of high-ranking military officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, the chief of naval operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force, General James Slife, and the head of the US National Security Agency, General Timothy Go.

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