Ukraine's Zelensky sacks army head, vows to continue strikes on Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the head of the armed forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, and appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new commander-in-chief. The move comes after days of mass protests in cities nationwide demanding Syrskyi’s removal. Zelensky vowed that ‘deep strikes’ on Russia will continue under Drapatyi’s leadership.

The decision was made after a series of meetings with military commanders, which began shortly after protests broke out demanding the reinstatement of former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov and the removal of Syrskyi. Fedorov was seen by demonstrators as a driver of military modernisation, while Syrskyi was seen as embodying the army’s old, Soviet-style command culture.

Meanwhile, Moscow launched an attack on a Ukraine-bound gas tanker near Romania’s coast, as the Kremlin vowed to step up its attacks on ships supplying Kyiv’s military. Romanian President Nicusor Dan said the Liberian-flagged vessel was hit in an attack likely linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not stop striking vessels supplying Ukraine’s military. Zelensky spoke with the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham shortly after he took office, reaffirming their unwavering support for Ukraine and agreeing to speak on bilateral cooperation in the near future.

In other developments, a Russian guided-bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen. Seven floors of a nine-storey apartment block were engulfed by flames, with two men and a 67-year-old woman being killed.

Russian authorities are also redirecting fuel supplies from Siberia and ramping up imports from Belarus to prevent shortages in the country’s most populous and wealthiest Moscow region amid nationwide disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries.

The fuel crunch has been felt in varying degrees across Russia’s 11 time zones since May, when Ukraine stepped up attacks on oil refineries in an attempt to undermine Russian war efforts. Russia’s overall gasoline output fell to the equivalent of around 65 per cent of average seasonal consumption in early July.