The new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Mykhailo Drapati and acting Defense Minister Yevgen Khmara will be tasked with improving the work of the service responsible for military accounting and mobilization of the population, Reuters reported, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, BTA reports.
Drapati and Khmara will also have to work together to fulfill another strategic task – strengthening air defense, Zelensky said during a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Michail Martin in Kyiv, Ukrinform notes.
"Without a doubt, both Drapati and Khmara will have to fulfill the main tasks that lie ahead of us in this long and exhausting war for everyone. These are the tasks that I assigned to both (Mikhail) Fedorov and (former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr) Syrsky – because they cannot be divided so that only one bears responsibility and the other – not– all this must be done jointly, in coordination, until the war is over." Local media reported that Mykhailo Fedorov, whose dismissal as defense minister last week sparked protests, had been offered the position of deputy prime minister for defense innovations. Zelensky added that he had offered the current prime minister, Yulia Sviridenko, the post of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.