General Mykhailo Drapaty was an outstanding commander and strategist. Now he has to deal with reforms, personnel and a little politics. A profile of the new commander of the Ground Forces

On May 9, 2014, an organized group of pro-Russian militants stormed the Mariupol city police department. There was a meeting there at the time: the police chiefs and the deputy commander of the Territorial Defence Forces were planning how to knock out the pro-Russian forces from the city center. Militants surrounded the building and demanded to lay down their weapons, otherwise they threatened to burn everyone alive. The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs appealed to the military for help. It turned out that the 72nd battalion of a separate mechanized brigade, commanded by Major Mykhailo Drapaty, is near Mariupol. Fighters of the battalion went to the city center on several IFVs.

When the fighters of the battalion of the 72nd brigade broke into the building, the fighters had already captured the first floor and stormed the second. The Ukrainian military helped their soldiers escape from the surrounded building and move to the Mariupol airport.

A barricade more than a meter high was on the way of the convoy. Mykhailo Drapaty was sitting in the first car of the convoy. After hearing from the driver about the barricade, he commanded: "Go!"

His IFV overcame the barricade, jumping on it as if on a springboard — this moment was captured on a famous video. Mykhailo Drapaty recalls that only later did he finally understand what was happening.

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Mykhailo Drapaty is a military man who devoted his entire life to the Defense Forces. He was born in 1982 in Kamyanets-Podilskyi in a family of teachers. After school, he entered the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Forces at the command department and graduated in 2004 as a lieutenant.

In the same year, he was assigned to serve in the 72nd separate mechanized brigade in Bila Tserkva, which was then commanded by Colonel Oleksandr Syrskyi. After five years of service, he was appointed deputy commander of the tank battalion for weapons, a position that should be held by a major.

"He was a workaholic, as he is now, and he wanted to change something for the better. A senior lieutenant is appointed to the position of major, especially in peacetime, only for merit," Drapatyʼs then comrade in the service, who crossed paths with him after the full-scale invasion, tells Babel.

Shortly before the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Mykhailo Drapaty received a new position — the commander of the 2nd battalion of the same brigade.

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During the anti-terrorist operation, the brigade where Mykhailo Drapaty served advanced to the Donetsk region. Drapatyʼs battalion was stationed in the Mariupol area: it was supposed to prevent militants from entering the Donbas and prevent the movement of weapons and ammunition. In mid-June 2014, when other units were liberating Mariupol, his battalion was already on the border with Russia — in the Chervonopartizansk district of Luhansk region.

The task of Mykhailo Drapaty and several other units was to prevent Russian equipment and military from entering Donbas through the eastern border. They managed: the possibilities of the Russians were significantly narrowed, the Ukrainian Armed Forces advanced. Therefore, from the middle of July 2014, the Russians began shelling Ukrainian units near the border from their territory — the Ukrainian Armed Forces could not retaliate on Russian territory. Both battalions of the 72nd Brigade found themselves in the ring of fire: they were pressed by the "DPR" troops from the rear.

The fighters of Drapaty spent 28 days surrounded.

"It was difficult when you donʼt hear the rear, you donʼt hear the reserves," Drapaty recalled in one of the interviews. For some time, they tried to drop everything necessary from An-26 planes. But it became more and more difficult to supply food and ammunition.

The first battalion of the brigade decided to leave the encirclement through the territory of Russia. They returned home, but without weapons: they were disarmed and released by Russian regular troops. Drapaty consulted with the commander of the division of self-propelled howitzers Dmytro Khrapach and decided to fight his way through. Drapaty recalls that Khrapach had only trucks and tractors, while he had IFVs and tanks. He led the withdraval.

On the night of August 3-4, 2014, they began to leave Izvaryne through Zelenopillia and Dyakove. The fighters followed a route that the troops had not used before — through the fields, and not along the roads, where the "DPR" fighters were waiting for them. According to Mykhailo Drapaty, then the scouts of the battalion worked well: in three days the fighters broke through the minefields and past the ambushes.

Drapaty led out of the encirclement 260 soldiers and more than 30 units of equipment of his battalion, as well as soldiers of the 24th and 51st mechanized brigades, the 79th airmobile brigade, the 3rd special forces regiment and border guards. With this breakthrough, Drapaty earned great respect among the military.

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Mykhailo Drapaty was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel and, after a short rest, was sent to study at the National University of Defense, at the operational-tactical level. Later, he was transferred to the "absentee" and returned to Donbas, already as the chief of staff of the 30th separate mechanized brigade. There he chose the call sign "Rubin".

Together with the brigade, he went to the Volnovakha direction of the ATO [anti-terrorist operation]. At that time, the confrontation line had already "frozen", the chief of staff of the brigade was left with administrative matters. Soon enough, in September 2016, Drapaty was appointed commander of the 58th separate infantry brigade.

At that time, the brigade captured the industrial zone of Avdiivka, pushed the militants to the Donetsk-Kostyantynivka highway and held its position for half a year. A month after Drapatyʼs arrival, the brigade was taken to rest in Konotop. After a rest, in the summer of 2017, the brigade again went to the ATO zone and replaced the 93rd brigade at positions in the area of the Bakhmut highway, between Bakhmut and Debaltseve. Mykhailo Drapaty headed the brigade until September 2019.

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In April 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidential elections. He started changes in the military leadership. The first person he replaced was the Chief of the General Staff.

At that time, Mykhailo Drapaty was studying again at the National University of Defense, now at the strategic level: this is the last stage of military education, which allows one to rise to the rank of general. Drapaty graduated from the NGO with honors. During the graduation ceremony on June 18, 2021, the Ambassador of Great Britain to Ukraine Melinda Simmons presented him with a symbolic award as the best graduate of the operational-strategic level of training: the transitional honorary sword of the Queen of Great Britain.

As two independent sources told Babel, Drapaty was released just as President Zelenskyʼs Office was planning to replace commanders who served in the Soviet army. Mykhailo Drapaty was considered for the post of commander of the Ground Forces instead of Oleksandr Syrskyi. Drapaty even had a conversation with the president, but Syrsky eventually remained in his post. Drapaty was appointed head of the training department in the "North" operational command. In December 2021, the president awarded him the rank of brigadier general.

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On February 24, 2022, Mykhailo Drapaty was in the East, in the area of the operation of the United Forces. He headed one of the control points.

"I understood that this was a full-scale war. I was ready for [it], because it lasted for the eighth year," said Drapaty in one of his interviews.

When the Russian troops were thirty kilometers from Kryvyi Rih, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi ordered Drapaty to go to the city and lead the operational group "South". The situation in the entrusted Drapaty direction was deplorable.

"In front of Kryvyi Rih, there were 500 National Guardsmen and the newly formed 60th brigade, where the personnel officers could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The others are mobilized," a military man who was in command together with Drapaty tells Babel.

Over a period of time, Drapaty managed to stabilize the situation. He undertook the training of servicemen from the brigades entrusted to him, because there were many mobilized among them. At the same time, they were looking for weak spots in the enemyʼs defense.

The counteroffensive began in September-October 2022. The operative group (OG) was supposed to reach the city of Beryslav in the Kherson region, gain a foothold and stand on the bank of the Dnipro River. It accomplished the task, liberating about 30 settlements and advancing 30 kilometers. Drapaty discussed with the commanders every operation, even a successful one.

In November, the Armed Forces liberated the entire right-bank Kherson region. Since OG under the command of Drapaty achieved its goal, it was disbanded in November 2022. At the beginning of 2023, Drapaty was appointed head of the "Kherson" OG, and in the summer he was involved in the planning of the landing of the Armed Forces on the left bank of the Dnipro River — between Kherson and Kakhovka.

"Then we advanced little by little, wrested the islands from the Russians," says Drapatyʼs warmate. Next, the 126th Territorial Defence Forces brigade, which was at the disposal of Drapaty, entered and took positions under the Antonivka Bridge in the Kherson area on the left bank of the Dnipro River. In order to advance quickly, Drapaty asked the commander-in-chief for one mechanized brigade. However, at that moment, the command of the operation, which is now known as the "battles for Krynky", was completely given to the then commander of the Marine Corps, Yuriy Sodol. He directed the entry of marines into Krynky and other settlements on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Drapaty was removed from planning the operation — he only accompanied and helped. The operation effectively ended in failure, the Defense Forces withdrew with heavy losses in the summer of 2024.

In March 2024, Drapaty was appointed commander of the “Odesa” operational-strategic group, whose responsibility extends from Transnistria to the Zaporizhzhia region.

In February 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Drapaty as the deputy chief of the General Staff for military training. For some time, Drapaty headed the "Odesa" operational-strategic group and came to Kyiv only in the spring.

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On the night of May 10, 2024, Russian troops crossed the border in Kharkiv region in several places at once. In a week, they captured about ten villages and entered Vovchansk. The soldiers of some Ukrainian brigades left their positions, some gave battle. The head of the operational-tactical group "Kharkiv" Yuriy Halushkin lost control over the situation, so already on May 11, 2024, Oleksandr Syrskyi sent Mykhailo Drapaty to the Kharkiv region.

The interlocutor of Babel in operational-tactic group says that no one slept for the first four days. The main task was to "stabilize the situation": to start the work of the headquarters, to establish a system of intelligence, surveillance, fire damage. In this way, the Russians were stopped, and in some places they were somewhat pushed back.

The Russians threw a large force at the Kharkiv region: they were well-trained paratroopers, mobilized, and convicts.

"They simply filled the front with prisoners. We killed a bunch of their troops there. At that time, there were no reserves to fully recapture territories in Kharkiv region. But the war was partially moved to the territory of Russia," says the interlocutor of Babel.

In the summer of 2024, the situation began to deteriorate on the entire front line. It became especially critical at the end of the summer in the area of Chasiv Yar, in the area of New York and Toretsk: the Russians were able to break through the defense there, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine had held for almost 10 years. The operational-tactical group "Luhansk", which at the time was commanded by Colonel Yevhen Ledovy, is responsible for this section of the front.

"He never had the experience of managing either a battalion or a brigade, so he could not handle the group. It was felt in the way he set tasks and the way he communicated with brigade commanders," says one of Ledovyʼs former subordinates.

"When Mykhailo Vasyliovych came, everything went back to normal, as it was before Ledovy," says the interlocutor of Babel. Drapaty studied the team, found out if someone needed to be changed, strengthened all areas of work of operatinal-tactic group with new people, organized the work. He remained the deputy chief of the General Staff and had more opportunities than other leaders.

"We received more ammunition, new weapons systems. It had a [good] effect on the fighting ability and motivation of the brigades," says the interlocutor of Babel.

The big problem Mykhailo Drapaty struggled with was lying in reports. Battalion and brigade commanders do not always tell the truth to a senior leader about the situation on the front line, especially if some positions have not been held. Drapaty and his staff began to fight it. He gathered general meetings, at which he asked to report the situation honestly, without any punishments or official investigations. The only thing that was necessarily done was to analyze the reasons why the military left their positions and correct the mistakes. He often visited the positions of brigade commanders and battalion commanders. In a month or a half, he managed to get the commanders to provide him with truthful information.

The rapid advance of the Russian troops was stopped. In early October 2024, the president awarded Mykhailo Drapaty the rank of major general.

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In the fall of 2024, the situation on the entire front has already become critical. Foreign media and Ukrainian journalists began to write about the fact that the front is collapsing, as well as military experts and Western partners. There were a lot of complaints against the command of the Armed Forces, mainly regarding personnel decisions and the lack of a systematic analysis of errors.

The military criticized the work of the Ground Forces Command as a whole, as well as separately for the scandals with TRCs, which are subordinate to the "land forces". So at the end of November, President Volodymyr Zelensky made several high-profile appointments.

Mykhailo Drapaty became the commander of the Ground Forces. The commander of the 95th brigade Oleh Apostol became the deputy chief of the General Staff. The commander of the 93rd Brigade Pavlo Palisa became the Deputy Head of the Office of the President. As sources close to the General Staff tell Babel, these appointments were spontaneous, no one knew about them until the day before. Drapaty became the youngest commander of the Ground Forces in the entire history of Ukraine.

"Drapaty will be able to change something if he is allowed to bring his team to the Command," an interlocutor at the General Staff explains to Babel. But it is not yet known whether he will be able to do it. Only on Wednesday of last week, he submitted his case to the operational-tactic group "Luhansk".

The command of the branches and types of troops is significantly different from the commands on the front line, such as operational-tactic group and operational-strategic group. It does not plan military operations, but develops its kind of troops. The responsibility of the command is to train personnel, provide, and introduce new technologies. And most importantly, this position requires cooperation with the president, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers.

"A little different leadership is needed in this position. Drapaty will have to shape the opinion [of the political leadership], be their adviser. And this, unfortunately, is not taught at the National University at all, " says the interlocutor of Babel.