“Sodol’s dismissal may be part of a broader trend in the Ukrainian Armed Forces command” – Pavlo Narozhnyi
25 June 2024 13:22
EXCLUSIVE
Major General Eduard Sodol was dismissed from the post of Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Instead, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Andriy Hnatov as the new Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The decision to dismiss Sodol was preceded by a publication by the Chief of Staff of the Azov Brigade, Bohdan Krotevych.
“…I wrote a letter to the State Bureau of Investigation calling for the opening of an investigation into a military general who, in my opinion, killed more Ukrainian soldiers than any Russian general,”
– krotevych wrote.
Later, MP Mariana Bezugla wrote that the general Krotevych was referring to was Sodol.
Military expert Pavlo Narozhnyi commented on the situation in an exclusive commentary to Kommersant Ukrainskyi
, explaining the possible reasons and consequences of this decision:
“Sodol’s area of responsibility was the most difficult section of the frontline: Donetsk, the Pokrovske direction, which is the hottest and most difficult now. And in this area we are retreating, quite significantly. This retreat has threatened Toretsk, which is very well fortified and is our outpost,”
– said the expert.
He also recalled that commentators blame Sodol for the Krynky operation, in which marines seized and are holding a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnipro River. The general is blamed for the high casualties during the operation and the lack of further progress in this area.
According to Narozhnyi, the possible consequences of the decision to replace Sodol will be seen in 1-2 months, when General Hnatov gets used to his new position. After all, he faces a difficult task of countering the Russian offensive.
Instead, the expert expressed doubts about the feasibility of such a replacement at the moment:
“We can say that this is a very complicated question: whether this was the optimal time for the replacement, whether it will have an immediate effect, whether it will somehow improve the situation at the front.”
The expert also noted that this dismissal could be part of a wider trend. And in this context, the words of MP Bezuhla are worth listening to.
“Bezuhla is a kind of bellwether. She is obviously not an independent person. She starts writing something and then something happens. She wrote about Sodol, about Syrsky. Perhaps this suggests that there is some dissatisfaction in the Presidential Office with our current military command,”
– pavlo Narozhny added.
