Zelensky appoints new Special Operations Forces head

President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Colonel Serhii Lupanchuk from his role as the commander of the Ukrainian military's Special Operations Forces (SOF), according to a presidential decree published online on May 9.

A separate decree announced Brigadier General Oleksandr Trepak as the force's new commander.

Lupanchuk has served as the SOF's commander for the near past six months since his appointment on Nov. 3, 2023.

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Trepak has served as the SOF's deputy commander since 2020 and has served in Ukraine's military since April 2014.

In 2014, he guarded the Armored Armament Supply Center in the city of Bakhmut and the small arms storage base in the village of Paraskoviivka in Donetsk Oblast. Trepak was also the commander of the Donetsk airport defense operation from August to October of 2014.

Trepak was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine by Ukraine's president then Petro Poroshenko in 2015. He also received three orders of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi for special merits in protecting the state: in 2022 from Zelensky and twice in 2014 from Poroshenko.

Zelensky began to reshuffle Ukraine's military command in February, dismissing the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

More changes to Ukraine's military command were announced in April, with new appointments made in the country's southern, eastern, and western operational commands.

Read also: Ground Forces: Heads of southern, eastern military commands reassigned to new posts

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