On Saturday, 10 February, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held meetings to update the country's Armed Forces and Defence Forces.
Zelensky stressed that they were "important" and announced further changes.
"Important meetings today. We continue to upgrade the defence and security forces of Ukraine. The team is effective. There will be changes. More strength for Ukraine. More opportunities," the Head of State wrote in his telegram.
He said that "Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, whose area of expertise is unmanned systems and the development of the use of drones by our soldiers, and Colonel Andriy Lebedenko, whose area of expertise is innovation, the technological component of the army and combat systems, have been appointed as deputies to Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
"The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has approved the following candidates:
- Brigadier General Volodymyr Horbatiuk – his area of expertise is operational work, work of headquarters, planning, management: each headquarters must understand the frontline one hundred per cent,
- Brigadier General Oleksiy Shevchenko – his area of responsibility is logistics, the highest quality of logistics in our army,
- Brigadier General Mykhailo Drapatyi – he will be responsible for training, quality training of our military," Zelensky said in a statement.
Earlier, President Zelenskyy appointed Anatoliy Bargilevych, who had been in charge of the territorial defence forces since October 2023, as the new Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
"I have appointed Major General Anatoliy Bargilevych as the new Chief of the General Staff at the suggestion of Chief of the Army Oleksandr Syrskyi. He is an experienced person who understands the tasks of this war and Ukrainian goals," the President said.
He added that Syrskyi has already identified candidates for his deputies, but Zelenskyy has not yet named them.
Background. On 8 February, Zelenskyy appointed Syrskyy as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.