KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces fired 45 drones over Ukraine Sunday in a barrage that lasted 5 1/2 hours, officials said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued to reshuffle his war cabinet as the war enters its third year.
In a statement, Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 40 Iranian-made Shahed drones in nine other regions, including the one outside the country’s capital, Kyiv.
The attack, which lasted five and a half hours, targeted agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, officials from Ukraine’s southern defense forces wrote on Telegram. They said an attack in the Mykolaiv region wounded one person, a chimney and destroyed nearby residential buildings.
Another user was injured in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region when a fire broke out following falling debris from a destroyed drone, the head of the region’s army administration, Serhiy Lysak, said.
The moves come as Zelensky continues his reshuffling of army commanders in a bid to build momentum in the face of attacks through Russian forces.
Kyiv announced on Sunday that former Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Alexander Pavyuk will be the new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces. The position was previously held by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was appointed on Thursday to update the outgoing head of Ukraine’s military. , General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
New presidential decrees appointed Yurii Sodol, former head of the Ukrainian Marine Corps, as the new commander of Ukraine’s combined forces; Brigadier General Ihor Skibiuk as commander of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces; and Maj. Gen. Ihor Plahuta as commander of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine.
The new commander-in-chief Syrskyi has indicated that his immediate objectives involve rotating troops on the front and harnessing the power of new technologies at a time when Kiev’s forces are largely on the defensive.
In a statement on Telegram Saturday, Zelenskyy said that he hoped to “reboot” the upper levels of Ukraine’s armed forces with experienced combat commanders.
“Now, other people who are well known in the military and who know well what the military wants are taking on new responsibilities,” he said.
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