Zelensky appoints new Territorial Defense Forces head, replacing commander who Prigozhin claimed died in May

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Major General Ihor Tantsyura from his post as the commander of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces.

Zelensky named Anatoliy Barhylevych, who previously served as the deputy commander of the country’s ground forces, as his replacement.

Ihor Tantsyura has led Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces since May 2022. The president did not provide a reason for the shake-up.

On May 2, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Wagner Group artillery units had destroyed an armored vehicle near Bakhmut that “presumably” contained Ihor Tantsyura. Ukraine’s military denied the claim.

Later in May, the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported that Russian forces had twice tried to kill Tantsyura. The outlet’s sources said that on the day of Prigozhin’s attack, Wagner Group forces did fire on a vehicle that was supposed to contain the commander, but that Tantsyura was in a different vehicle and managed to escape.