Donetsk Oblast: News

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Analysis: New Commander-in-Chief Drapatyi faces a manpower mess of Syrskyi's making

"The transformation of the defense forces cannot end with a change of minister, team, or department head. It must continue until fair and understandable rules become the norm for everyone who serves the state." The words of Mykhailo Drapatyi, posted on Facebook just days before he was named Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, foreshadowed the challenges he would soon face. Two and a half years after he took over the job from popular general Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Oleksandr Syrskyi's ten

About Donetsk Oblast

The Kyiv Independent's news and on-the-ground reporting from Donetsk Oblast, covering 26,517 square kilometers (10,239 square miles) in Ukraine’s East with a pre-war population of approximately 4.1 million. The administrative center is Kramatorsk, as Donetsk city has remained under Russian occupation since 2014. Donetsk Oblast has been the scene of intense fighting, for example, around the cities of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Vuhledar, as Moscow attempts to capture the entire region.

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