Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has appointed the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Serhiy Nayev, as commander of Joint Operation Headquarters, making the high-ranking military officer the head of all Ukrainian forces in the war zone of Donbas.
“I entrusted the Joint Forces commander with the mission to enhance the Armed Forces to the extent that they shall become not only defense-potent but also capable of liberating the occupied territories,” Poroshenko said during his March 16 visit to the near-frontline areas of the Donetsk Oblast.
As a new commander of Ukrainian contingent in Donbas, Naiev will replace Lieutenant General Mykhailo Zabrodskiy, a top commander of the Air Assault Forces bearing the “Hero of Ukraine” title for his successful campaign against Russian-led forces in the summer of 2014, widely known as “Zabrodskiy’s Raid.”
Zabrodskiy will reportedly continue commanding the airborne troops, a separate branch of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Lieutenant General Nayev, 47, is known to serve in as a commander of Ukraine’s operative command “The East” in 2015-2017, and previously as a chief executive officer at “The South” command.
The long-awaited appointment was made in conformity with the so-called Donbas re-integration law, approved by Ukraine’s parliament on Jan. 18 and signed by Poroshenko into force on Feb. 20.
The headline-making bill, among other matters, stipulates that the ongoing campaign against the Russian-backed forces that occupy parts of Donbas shall be conducted by military command at the Joint Operation Headquarters, the head of which shall be nominated by Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces and approved by the president.
The Joint Operation Headquarters commander would consolidate supreme control of all combat formations of the army, the National Guards, the police, and special services deployed along the front line in Donbas.
The new model of the military campaign in the war-torn region was set to eventually replace the so-called “anti-terrorist operation”, formally led by SBU state security service since April 2014 in response to the growing destabilization and the invasion of the Russian-sponsored subversive groups in the region.
“The anti-terror operation format will be changed to the Joint Forces Operation,” Poroshenko also announced on March 16.
Earlier, following the signing of the law, Poroshenko ordered the Chief of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko to complete all preparations to establish the Joint Forces Operation commander by April 1.
Just days before his new appointment, on March 7, Chief of the General Staff Muzhenko announced Nayev his new deputy.
