Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky names new commander-in-chief and vows ‘deep strikes’ on Moscow will continue – UK Times

President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces following days of mass protests in Kyiv and other cities nationwide demanding his removal.

Mr Zelensky appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new army chief, according to a statement on social media.

“Our shared wish is one — victory over the enemy and conditions at the front and pressure on Russia that would force Russia toward peace,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader said he made the decision after a series of meetings with military commanders. They began shortly after protests broke out demanding the reinstatement of former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, seen by demonstrators as a driver of military modernisation, and the removal of Syrskyi, who they said embodied the army’s old, Soviet-style command culture.

Andy Burnham has spoken with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and US president Donald Trump as part of his first set of phone calls with world leaders as prime minister.

Burnham promised that Britain’s support for Ukraine would remain unchanged under his leadership, just hours after he replaced Sir Keir Starmer in No 10.

Zelensky confirmed the call on his Telegram channel and said the two sides reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine and agreed to speak on bilateral cooperation in the near future, including within the Anti-Ballistic Coalition.

“I was happy to speak with Andy Burnham and congratulate him on taking office as prime minister of the United Kingdom. I truly appreciate that the support for Ukraine and our people will remain steadfast,” he said.

Zelensky thanked Burnham for “warm words of respect for the Ukrainian people and for your condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in Russia’s recent attacks”.

Britain’s new government secured an early defence win on Tuesday as Canada joined the delayed GCAP fighter jet programme, as European seeks to reduce their reliance on US weapons.

The move coincides with the Farnborough Airshow, the aerospace and defence industry’s premier gathering – with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East driving demand for tools from combat drones and interceptor missiles to AI-enabled military software.

The airshow coincides with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first days in office. He named John Healey, who favours hiking the UK defence budget, as finance minister, while giving Health Minister Wes Streeting the defence brief.

As we’ve been reporting, a Russian guided-bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people on Tuesday and injured more than a dozen, according to regional officials.

We can now bring you some more on the attack.

Seven floors of a nine-storey apartment block were engulfed by flames, with two men aged 62 and 49 being killed along with a 67-year-old woman, regional authorities said.

Officials say Russia makes heavy use of guided bombs — air-launched, often Soviet-era weapons fitted with wings and navigation — in attacks on regions close to the front line.

“The situation in the city is very tense, because in the morning we drive (to work) under Shahed (drone) attacks, at lunch time we have guided-bomb attacks, and in the evening we return home under Shahed and guided-bomb attacks,” said Tetiana, a 38-year-old resident of the damaged apartment block.

Footage from the scene showed one side of the apartment block had been blackened by fire and that emergency workers were working to put out the flames. Burnt-out cars were parked nearby.

Moscow denies targeting civilians but has frequently hit residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi is expected to lose his job as Volodymyr Zelensky looks set to stave off widespread protests.

In the past week, demonstrators have gathered outside the Ukrainian president’s office in Kyiv demanding Syrskyi’s sacking and the reinstatement of popular former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was fired after a clash with senior military leaders.

Fedorov, who is credited with improving Ukraine’s army since he took office in January, was said to have had significant differences with the commander-in-chief.

But Syrskyi on Monday publicly denied the differences were irreconcilable and said their relationship was a professional one, despite the disagreements.

Read the full report here:

Russian authorities are redirecting fuel supplies from Siberia and ramping up imports from Belarus to prevent shortages in the country’s most populous and wealthiest Moscow region amid nationwide disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries, industry sources have told Reuters news agency.

The fuel crunch has been felt in varying degrees across Russia’s 11 time zones since May, when Ukraine stepped up attacks on oil refineries in an attempt to undermine Russian war efforts.

Russia’s overall gasoline output fell to the equivalent of around 65 per cent of average seasonal consumption in early July after undershooting demand for a couple of months, according to industry sources.

An attack on the Moscow Oil Refinery in mid-June caused fuel shortages and long lines at filling stations, but supplies in the Russian capital, home to the political and cultural elite, and the wider Moscow region stabilised by mid-July, according to regional fuel traders and Reuters witnesses, with ample availability of gasoline and diesel for cars.

A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen, the regional governor said.

We’re working to bring you more.

Russia summoned the Moldovan ambassador to the foreign ministry on Tuesday after it said employees of its embassy in Chisinau were subjected to “force and threats of detention” by Moldovan police.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry named two recent incidents in which its staff in Moldova had been subjected to unreasonable delays at a border crossing or random document checks while travelling around the Moldovan capital.

In one of those incidents, on the weekend, Moscow said Moldovan police “used force and threats of detention against Embassy staff.”

The statement said Moldova’s envoy, Lilian Darii, was told that Russia maintains the right to take retaliatory measures.