{"id":82809,"date":"2026-04-17T16:31:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/?p=82809"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:19:57","slug":"ukraine-appoints-air-assault-officer-zaits-to-lead-20th-army-corps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/news\/ukraine-appoints-air-assault-officer-zaits-to-lead-20th-army-corps\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Appoints Air Assault Officer Zaits to Lead 20th Army Corps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colonel Svyatoslav Zaits has been appointed commander of Ukraine\u2019s 20th Army Corps, replacing Major General Viktor Nikolyuk, who has been promoted to a senior post, <a href=\"https:\/\/hromadske.ua\/viyskovi\/262474-20-korpus-iakyy-boronyt-dnipropetrovshchynu-ocholyv-polkovnyk-zayits\">according to hromadske<\/a>, citing sources in the Defense Forces. Zaits has already assumed duties within the corps\u2019 area of responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nikolyuk has been named head of Operational Command East, replacing Major General Oleksandr Bratishko. The reshuffle comes as Ukraine\u2019s high command seeks to reinforce defenses in the Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk sectors, where Russian forces continue to press forward. Bratishko\u2019s dismissal may also be linked to the reported loss of Siversk, which has triggered a broader shake-up, including the removal of commanders from the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, 54th Mechanized Brigade, and, more recently, the 11th Army Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f\"]{font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading82809_f6599f-6f\">About Zaits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Zaits is an officer of Ukraine\u2019s Air Assault Forces. In 2014, he was stationed in Crimea during Russia\u2019s occupation of the peninsula and led a reconnaissance company of the 25th Airborne Brigade back to mainland Ukraine. He later took part in the defense of Luhansk Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By 2019, Zaits commanded a separate Air Assault battalion and participated in the Cossack Will-2019 exercise. He later went on to lead the 79th Air Assault Brigade. Prior to his current appointment, he served as deputy commander of the 8th Air Assault Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His appointment highlights a broader trend within Ukraine\u2019s military, where Air Assault Forces officers are increasingly being assigned to command positions in Ground Forces units. Zaits is not alone: the 16th Army Corps is led by Yevheniy Kurash, and the 156th Mechanized Brigade by Yuriy Hupalyuk\u2014both also Air Assault officers.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colonel Svyatoslav Zaits has been appointed commander of Ukraine\u2019s 20th Army Corps, replacing Major General Viktor Nikolyuk, who has been promoted to a senior post, according to hromadske, citing sources&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-people"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"},{"value":1184,"label":"People"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news_oceast_newcom-1024x609.webp",1024,609,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Jerome Rendall","author_link":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/author\/ml_admin\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1054,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":1054,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1184,"name":"People","slug":"people","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1184,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1184,"category_count":11,"category_description":"","cat_name":"People","category_nicename":"people","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82809"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82853,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82809\/revisions\/82853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}