What happened? Zelenksy makes the drastic decision about the senior officer

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday fired a senior army officer commanding forces fighting Russians in the eastern part of the country, without explaining why. In a one-line decree, Zelensky announced the removal of Eduard Moskalyov from the position of commander of Ukraine's joint forces involved in the fighting in the eastern Donbas.

Moskalyov was appointed to this post in March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion. The joint forces did not mention this decision on their social media accounts. The Russian army is focusing its efforts on occupying the two regions that make up Donbas. President Zelensky describes the situation there as difficult and painful in recent weeks. The center of the fighting is the city of Bahamut, for which the two warring parties publish completely contradictory versions of the situation in the region.

While Russian sources said the village of Yakhodne, in the south, on the road to Sloviansk, has now been captured, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian attacks on it had been repulsed. The capture of this community would open the way for Russian forces to reach the village of Chromovye, through which supplies for Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut pass. Both sides confirmed fighting around the village of Ivanivske, on the road to Kostanivka, west of Bakhmut. Bahamut itself is described as the biggest 'slaughterhouse' of the war, due to the massacres that took place in this country.