MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky officially removed the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Alexander Syrsky, from his post on Wednesday and appointed Mikhail Drapaty to replace him, according to decrees published on Zelensky’s website.

One decree officially relieves Drapaty of duty as the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), and promotes him to the post of the AFU commander-in-chief. No decree about Syrsky’s appointment to any post has been published yet.

Zelensky also sacked Andrey Gnatov as the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and promoted Igor Skibyuk to the post. Previously, Skibyuk served as the deputy chief of the AFU General Staff.

Earlier on Wednesday, Drapaty announced that he had already begun to work as the new army chief, although no decree on his appointment had yet been officially published. Besides, the reshuffle contained a certain conflict of law: formally, Zelensky has the right to appoint the new commander-in-chief only if it was nominated by the defense minister, but that post remains vacant as of now. After Mikhail Fedorov was removed from the post, Yevgeny Khmara was appointed to take his place, but only as defense minister ad interim.

The defense minister’s appointment is to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, which has been on summer recess until August 18 and planned no emergency meetings as of yet.