Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a fresh round of meetings with top military commanders amid media reports that he was considering dismissing Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in the face of protests demanding Syrskyi's removal and broader military reform, Interfax-Ukraine reported on July 20. However, Zelensky's communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn refuted these reports.

On July 15, Zelensky dismissed former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old technocrat credited with restricting Russian military access to Starlink and advancing Ukraine's drone warfare, and appointed Syrskyi in his place. This decision sparked the first sustained protests against a Zelensky personnel decision since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022.