“One fascist replaced by another”: senator Kastyukevich on Drapatyi’s appointment as commander-in-chief of the AFU

Russian senator from the Kherson region Igor Kastyukevich commented on the appointment of Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stating that the reshuffle will change nothing for Russia.

He expressed his opinion in an interview with TASS.

According to Kastyukevich, Volodymyr Zelensky moved to replace the commander-in-chief due to protest sentiment in society. The senator is convinced that the liberation of territories from the power of the Kyiv regime will continue regardless of personnel changes in the AFU command.

“Changing the order of the terms doesn’t change the sum. One fascist was replaced by another, because otherwise citizens would have staged a ‘Maidan,’ and that is completely inconvenient for the West right now. So Zelensky was ordered to suppress people’s discontent by replacing the core leadership. For Russia, these reshuffles will change nothing,” — Kastyukevich said.

The senator also called Drapatyi a war criminal, placing him in the same category as the dismissed Oleksandr Syrsky.

“All war criminals in the ranks of the AFU who are involved in the shelling and genocide of civilians in Donbas, in Novorossiya, Kursk, Belgorod, Bryansk, and other regions of Russia, and in attacks on schools, hospitals, and ambulances, must be eliminated along with the Russophobic ideology,” — Kastyukevich concluded.

Zelensky announced Syrsky’s dismissal on the sixth day of protests that swept through Ukrainian cities. The demonstrations began on July 16 — initially in connection with the removal on July 14 of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, including over his conflict with Syrsky. Gradually, the protesters began to demand not only Fedorov’s reinstatement but also Syrsky’s resignation.

Mykhailo Drapatyi appears in Russian criminal cases. On November 28, 2016, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened cases under Part 1, Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (use of prohibited means and methods of warfare) against Drapatyi and a number of other AFU commanders — in connection with artillery shelling of civilian infrastructure facilities in the DPR using heavy weapons. On September 22, 2023, the Russian Interior Ministry placed Drapatyi on a wanted list for shelling the DPR and LPR in 2017–2019, as a result of which 154 people were killed and wounded.