Transcription
It's Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026. So, it happened. Ukraine's has no Ukraine now has a new commander. Uh, I talked about this yesterday in this video that Zalinski has already decided Cerski's fate. It was it was all over the press yesterday that Zillinski's made his decision. We just don't know who it was. And on top of that list was this guy. His name is Draati or please correct me if I'm mispronouncing it. I've only read it. I've not heard it like this is part of the media is that I'm I'm reading lots of articles.
So Zalinski is considering replacing Ukraine's top military commander Alexander Sirki with Major General Draati. Uh and that's actually what happened. Wimir Zalinski has chosen Michaela Vadraati to be commander and chief of Ukraine's armed forces and dismiss controversial general and close ally Alexander Cerski in the biggest shakeup of the country's military leadership since 2024. There have been a number of shakeups here. The most recent has been the shakeup within the presidential office uh where his long-term ally was replaced with Budanov.
So, okay. Um and so this I think is a net positive and I'll explain why. So Zalinsky posted this. I have decided that Michael Draati will become the new commanderin-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine together with Michael Kamara. Okay. So he's talking about the new uh ministry of defense minister here which I think is important because he's not saying like I'm bringing Federov back. He he's he's moved Kamara over from uh Al SB Espoo Espoo Alpha over to the minister of defense. Together with him and Pablo Pisa uh we determined how the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine should be reconfigured.
It's a fact that Alexander Sirki delivered results for Ukraine in the defensive in the defense of Keev and in the Hark offensive and the Kurskov operation. We've come a long way. Ukraine's defense continues and every warrior must be treated with dignity. I'm grateful to Alexander Sirki and to every one of our warriors for Ukraine's strong position on the front. I'm grateful to Michael Draati for sharing this vision. We all want the same thing. To defeat the enemy, create the conditions on the front line through pressure on Russia that would allow us to force Russia into peace. Tomorrow, we will formalize all of these decisions.
So, it's pretty much a done deal. Zalinsky has decided. Now, it's really interesting that there's been this shakeup when Okay, so when there is this shakeup, this is incumbent on Zinsky to get this right. If he gets this right, a lot of things also can go right. If he gets it wrong, a lot of things can go wrong. So, this was Wednesday uh Tuesday, July 21st when this happened. And this will be a pivotable pivotal point in history. If if it goes very right or it goes very wrong, people will point back to that day.
In August of 2014, after units of the 72nd brigade were encircled near is varn varni cauldron and came under a sustained grad and urang rocket fire. Draati organized and led the breakout. He extracted approximately 260 soldiers and more than 30 pieces of equipment over roughly 160 kilometers with only two fatalities. This is frequently cited as one of the most successful extractions of the early war. So that's who this guy is. That's how he uh made his chops early on.
Uh, Michael Fedorov, again, we don't know what what Fedorov is going to do or if he'll be back somehow in some capacity. uh he's clearly not going to be the defense minister, but uh could he come back in some other capacity? Hopefully, he'll have some kind of influence in continuing to uh help the Ukrainian army become more technologically savvy. Congratulations to Major General Michael Draati on his appointment as commander-in-chief. He says, "Now the high expectations of the Ukrainian people must be met with a clear vision for bringing the war of independence to a successful conclusion. A strong team and decisive action focused on saving the lives of our service members. I think that's an important way that Fedorov has been looking through this. How can we leverage this technology to preserve as many Ukrainian lives as possible? accelerating the robotization of the battlefield that's in service of that previous goal and then delivering asymmetric strikes and exhausting the Russian economy." So that's Fedorov's comment about this.
So who is Michael Japati? He's just 43 years old. The generals described as by the way he's a major general and Cerski was a colonel general. So I think that means uh so uh there's unless there's some kind of difference at least in the US military it would be brigadier general then major general that's two stars then lieutenant general is three stars and then this fourst star thing I think that's the equivalent of colonel general so he's he's jumping up a couple ranks uh uh well I don't know if his his ranks actually changed but I mean compared to sirki he was lower this general described as popular by the press and nicknamed A symbol of Ukrainian resistance embodies a new generation of commanders forged on the front lines. Born on November 21st, 1982, Harkke Armored Forces Institute, he attended the Harkfe Armored Forces Institute, which he graduated from in 2004. Then a major, he commanded the second battalion of the 72nd Brigade, deployed as an ear as early as April in Donbos in May 2014. Under his command, units of the 72nd Brigade entered Mariaole aboard armored vehicles to reinforce the troops repelling the separatist assault and uh there was a rapid rise. August 2016 he took command of the 58th separate motorized brigade. 2019 he left operational command for two years of studies at the Ivan Chernavosski National Defense University where he graduated top of the class. when the full-scale Russian invasion resumed in 2022, he commanded the Herzan operational group and played a key role in the liberation of the city.
Now, uh in February 24th, he became the deputy chief of general staff in charge of military training and then took the lead in the Hark and Luhansk operational tactical groups. Okay, so there's a there's a lot in that background in that resume, but what's most important to my mind is what we're going to see here. Draati is an excellent choice as land forces commander. He's also also also has recent experience in mobilization and training issues as land forces commander. Now this is this is why to my mind he's really uh powerful as a choice.
Draati began to institute a series of reforms to improve the culture, including officers taking responsibility, notably [snorts] after multiple Russian missile strikes on training areas. And there was one that was just devastating. Like there was a a rocket that struck a training ground. It killed a number of soldiers that should not have been gathered the way that they were gathered because they just became too juicy of a target. He submitted his resignation and took personal responsibility for the problem instead of deflecting. Any other subunit leader was like, "Oh, I mean, I don't know why this happened." He actually resigned and his re his resignation was not accepted. Uh, and he continued to serve, but he he he took responsibility. He set the example. Several of his brigade commanders praised his approach. Instead of simply giving orders, he listened to their opinions, welcomed feedback, and asked them how he could support them. A common criticism from brigades throughout the war is that the general staff doesn't properly support the units holding the front line. So, he's cut out of a different cloth. I mean, just from that which I'm reading here, if you put this into a paper about leadership, I would give you a high grade. I mean, so I think he's he's he's demonstrated a lot of the right things that we need to see in the commander. I suspect among the first things that he will do is ask the task force commanders what they need and ensure that the general staff supports them properly. I suspect this will have an immediate positive effect. I don't know that for sure. I'm reading somebody's commentary about it to their assessment of it, but I think that this all the signs seem positive to me. I don't see red flags like with Cerski, I saw the red flags of look, he's known for both this Soviet mentality and his training. He's been called the butcher, but he did say the right things when he started. So, I was trying to show you both sides of that. There's not a both sides here as far as I can see with Japati.
Okay. Now, all jokes aside, says Russians with attitude. So, this is a pro-Russian site. All jokes aside, they say General Trapati is an OG war criminal. He was in charge of the AFU troops that stormed Mariaole on May 9th in 2014 and massacred unarmed protesters as well as bystander. So, if the the Russians apparently don't like him and are trying to pull him back into more propaganda, it's he's probably um that that's probably a positive sign. The Russian blogger here is also impressed with Japati. Uh, by the way, Japati is only 43 years old and he started this war as a battalion commander. This is bad for us. A general who has risen to prominence in the war and understands it is a very difficult opponent.
Okay, so that's that's your potty as far as I can give you right now. So, uh, I hope that was helpful to you. My shout out is to Brian Campbell, a Patreon colleague. Uh, Trump must pressure Putin. I'm going to keep saying that. I know it's getting old, but that's what has to happen diplomatically. Comments. It's been all over UK news. It's he's been sacked this evening, replaced with Michael Japati, joined forces chief. This was one of the earlier comments. BBC News says Cerski has been fired at 1943 UTC. And thanks Cerski for his service. And really he he deserves to be uh praised and thanked for his service. He has dedicated his life here and uh but we need the most efficient operations possible and Japati I think represents that better than Cerski does. But it's time for Ukraine to move on from Soviet trained leadership. It's as simple as that. So Dati is the next generation and we'll see how this plays out differently.
So my question is what do you think of a jerpati? Uh do you see something that I don't see? Am I pronouncing it properly? I hope I I I spent the uh first couple of videos talking about solution as a looney. Okay, so that's I'm I'm better than I was, but I I still don't know what I don't know. All right, that's it. That's that's my final question for you. What do you think? Uh are you optimistic? Are you cautious? Are you worried? Nervous? Tell me what you're thinking about that. Thank you, my friends, for your time. Thank you for the likes, the shares, and the subscribes. And thank you for being the kind of person who cares about Ukraine.