Zelensky appoints new head of Special Operations Forces.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Brigadier General Viktor Khorenko from his role as the commander of the Special Operations Forces (SOF), according to a presidential decree published online on Nov.

3. A separate decree announced that new commander of the unit is Serhii Lupanchuk.   The SOF became an independent branch of the Ukrainian military in 2016, making it one of the seven branches of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Its soldiers often conduct reconnaissance missions and covert operations behind enemy lines. The force claimed responsibility for overnight strikes on Russian military airfields in occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk on Oct.

17, which destroyed nine helicopters, an air defense system, and an ammunition warehouse. Earlier in October, the SOF reported that a unit of its "Resistance Movement" sabotaged a train in Russian-occupied Melitopol that was carrying ammunition and fuel for the Russian military.

News Editor

Elsa Court is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post and has a Master's in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Before joining the Kyiv Independent, she worked at the Netherlands Red Cross programme to arrange hosts for Ukrainian refugees and as a freelance writer and editor.

Elsa is originally from the UK and is based in the Netherlands.