Kyiv military chief salutes outgoing US Army commander as war rages in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top general has publicly thanked the departing head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue , for helping build and sustain Washington’s support pipeline to Kyiv as the officer relinquished his post on Thursday after an unexpectedly brief 18 months in command.

Word broke June 23 that the four-star general had submitted his retirement papers after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally requested that he resign, according to multiple reports. The Army has yet to provide a definitive reason for the change.

Donahue’s predecessor, Gen. Darryl Williams, held the post for nearly two and a half years. Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, Donahue’s deputy, took over in an acting capacity Thursday after a farewell ceremony at the Clay Kaserne headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Within days of the news, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, held a phone call with Donahue and published a farewell on his personal social media accounts, thanking the outgoing official for creating a partnership that he said delivered long-range systems, strengthened Ukraine’s air defenses and saved thousands of Ukrainian lives.

The two military leaders have worked together since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, when Syrskyi, then chief of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, directed the defense of Kyiv and Donahue led the 82nd Airborne Division into southeastern Poland. Their partnership has only strengthened over the years, Syrskyi said.

“In the most challenging moments of our war for freedom and independence, Chris Donahue has proven himself not only as a military leader but also as a man of his word and honor,” Syrskyi wrote on Telegram .

“Ukrainian warriors will always hold General Donahue in the highest esteem.”

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi attends a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, February 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters)

The farewell, meanwhile, lands at a fraught moment in U.S.-Ukraine relations. The Trump administration has questioned the value of Kyiv’s fight in the past, even as the U.S. military incorporates more Ukrainian battlefield know-how amid its war with Iran.

Now, the American general who built the Army’s support machinery for Ukraine is out, and Syrskyi’s public tribute shows Kyiv knows what it stands to lose.

According to two U.S. officials cited by CBS News , Donahue “had earned the ire” of Hegseth, and the two men met in person only once, in February 2025.

Asked about accusations that Hegseth forced the general out over a personal grudge, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell provided no explanation.

“General officers and flag officers serve at the pleasure of the president and the secretary of war,” Parnell told the Daily Beast on Sunday. “They always have and always will.”

The departure extends a shake-up that has removed or replaced at least a dozen senior military leaders since Hegseth took office, with many of the moves made without public explanation .

U.S. President Donald Trump praised Donahue in January, when Fox News host Brian Kilmeade visited the general’s Wiesbaden headquarters and put Donahue on the phone with the president as his soldiers gathered around, according to Stars and Stripes .

“You’re doing a fantastic job,” Trump said. “Your reputation is great.”

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine is among those seeking a presidential waiver so Donahue can retire at four stars, a rank he has held for fewer than the three years federal law requires to retire at that grade, two sources told CBS News.

The Wiesbaden headquarters itself is officially being downgraded to a three-star command, part of Hegseth’s push to cut the number of four-star billets, Stars and Stripes reported. U.S. Air Forces in Europe lost its fourth star in a similar move last year.

Donahue has said nothing publicly about the circumstances of his exit, and the subject went unmentioned at Thursday’s ceremony. He thanked his troops in his farewell remarks, instead.

“I love this team — it has been the honor of a lifetime to be a part of it. I’m proud of what we built and I have absolute confidence in what you will build next,” Donahue said, according to an Army release .

Donahue was promoted to four stars in December 2024, when he took over U.S. Army Europe and Africa and, with it, command of NATO’s Allied Land Command in Izmir, Turkey. The combined headquarters developed the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, a warfighting concept that integrates allied land forces, drones and data under NATO’s defense plans for its eastern flank, according to the Army.

Donahue “saw the need to change, developed a plan, inspired others and built the processes to ensure it endures well beyond his tenure — and allies have bought in,” Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, said at the ceremony, according to the Army release.

Donahue was also the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan, photographed in night vision boarding the final C-17 out of Kabul in August 2021.

Brett McGurk, who served as special presidential envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State, told CBS News that Donahue is “among the most consequential commanders of his generation,” and retired Gen. Tony Thomas, a former head of U.S. Special Operations Command, called him a “generational leader.”

The ouster has drawn criticism from retired military leaders and lawmakers across the aisle.

The “decision to force [Donahue] out says far more about Hegseth than it does about General Donahue,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., wrote in a post on X last week, calling the move “yet another unforced error from a Secretary leading the Pentagon with bro-culture bravado rather than restraint, humility and careful stewardship of the finest fighting force in the world.”

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe, called Donahue the “best soldier in the Army today” in his own post . “Kremlin and terrorist organizations will be relieved to know that he will soon be gone.”

European officials fear the exit foreshadows a U.S. drawdown from the roughly 80,000 American troops on the continent, Newsweek reported.

The news came out just days after Hegseth criticized European allies over low defense spending and announced a six-month review of U.S. forces in Europe.

Retired Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, wrote in The Atlantic that the dismissals “raise a real risk that senior officers will be overly cautious about providing their best advice and, therefore, that the chance of military miscalculation will grow dramatically.”

Lt. Gen. Kevin Admiral, who leads the Army’s III Armored Corps, is the frontrunner to permanently replace Donahue in Wiesbaden, a U.S. military official told Newsweek, though no final decision has been made and the nomination would require Senate confirmation.

Donahue will formally hand the NATO post to its deputy, British Lt. Gen. Jez Bennett, at a July 9 ceremony in Izmir, Turkey. Bennett will serve as acting commander until another American officer is assigned, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell told CBS News .

Donahue closed his farewell remarks with a question.

“When people ask me, ‘Hey CD, what was it like to be a part of United States Army Europe and Africa?’ I only have to tell them how proud and unbelievably grateful I am to have been a part of the United States Army’s premier warfighting headquarters.”

Katie Livingstone is the Ukraine correspondent for Defense News and Military Times. Based in Kyiv, she has covered Russia's full-scale invasion since its first days. She is a former Fulbright fellow whose award-winning work has appeared in outlets across Europe and the U.S.

乌克兰基辅——乌克兰最高将领公开感谢即将离任的美国陆军欧洲和非洲司令克里斯托弗·多纳休将军，感谢他帮助建立和维持华盛顿对基辅的支持渠道。多纳休将军在担任司令一职18个月后，于周四卸任，而这一任期比预想的要短得多。

据多家媒体报道，6月23日有消息称，这位四星上将已提交退休申请，此前国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯亲自要求他辞职。陆军方面尚未就此变动给出明确解释。

多纳休的前任达里尔·威廉姆斯将军担任该职务近两年半。多纳休的副手克里斯托弗·诺里少将在周四于德国威斯巴登克莱兵营总部举行的告别仪式后，以代理身份接任该职务。

消息传出几天后，乌克兰总司令奥列克桑德·瑟尔斯基将军与多纳休通了电话，并在他的个人社交媒体账户上发表了告别信，感谢这位即将离任的官员建立了伙伴关系，他说这种伙伴关系提供了远程系统，加强了乌克兰的防空能力，并拯救了成千上万乌克兰人的生命。

这两位军事领导人自俄罗斯全面入侵之初便开始合作。当时，时任乌克兰陆军总司令的瑟尔斯基指挥基辅的防御，而多纳休则率领第82空降师进入波兰东南部。瑟尔斯基表示，多年来，他们的伙伴关系有增无减。

“在我们争取自由和独立的战争中最艰难的时刻，克里斯·多纳休不仅证明了自己是一位军事领袖，而且还证明了自己是一位信守承诺、恪守荣誉的人，”西尔斯基在 Telegram 上写道。

“乌克兰战士将永远对唐纳休将军保持最高的敬意。”

2024年2月，奥列克桑德·瑟尔斯基将军出席与乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基的会晤。（乌克兰总统新闻处供图，路透社发布）

与此同时，此次告别正值美乌关系紧张之际。尽管美国军方在与伊朗的战争中越来越多地借鉴乌克兰的战场经验，但特朗普政府过去曾质疑基辅抗争的价值。

现在，为乌克兰建立陆军支援机制的美国将军下台了，而瑟尔斯基的公开致敬表明基辅明白自己将失去什么。

据 CBS 新闻援引两位美国官员的话称，唐纳休“惹恼了”赫格塞斯，两人只在 2025 年 2 月见过一次面。

当被问及有关赫格塞斯因个人恩怨而迫使这位将军下台的指控时，五角大楼首席发言人肖恩·帕内尔没有做出任何解释。

帕内尔周日告诉《每日野兽报》：“将军和高级军官的任免权归总统和陆军部长所有。过去如此，将来亦如此。”

此次离职延续了自赫格塞斯上任以来至少十几名高级军事领导人被撤职或更换的局面，其中许多举措都没有公开解释。

据《星条旗报》报道，今年1月，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普对多纳休表示赞扬。当时，福克斯新闻主持人布莱恩·基尔米德访问了这位将军位于威斯巴登的总部，并在士兵们聚集在多纳休身边时，让多纳休与总统通了电话。

“你做得非常出色，”特朗普说。“你的声誉很好。”

据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻报道，两名消息人士透露，参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军是寻求总统豁免以允许多纳休以四星上将身份退休的人之一，而他担任四星上将的时间还不到联邦法律规定的三年退休期限。

据《星条旗报》报道，威斯巴登司令部本身将被正式降级为三星司令部，这是赫格塞斯削减四星军衔计划的一部分。去年，美国驻欧洲空军也因类似举措失去了一名四星上将。

多纳休没有公开谈论他离职的具体情况，周四的仪式上也没有提及此事。相反，他在告别致辞中感谢了他的部下。

“我热爱这支队伍——能成为其中的一员是我毕生的荣幸。我为我们所取得的成就感到自豪，并且对你们接下来将取得的成就充满信心，”多纳休在陆军发布的一份声明中说道。

2024年12月，多纳休晋升为四星上将，接管了美国陆军欧洲和非洲司令部，并同时兼任北约盟军陆地司令部司令，该司令部位于土耳其伊兹密尔。据陆军方面称，该联合司令部制定了“东翼威慑倡议”，这是一项将盟军地面部队、无人机和数据整合到北约东翼防御计划中的作战概念。

据陆军发布的消息，北约欧洲盟军最高司令亚历克西斯·格林克维奇将军在仪式上表示，多纳休“看到了变革的必要性，制定了计划，激励了其他人，并建立了确保变革在他任期结束后仍能持续下去的流程——盟友们也接受了这一计划”。

多纳休也是最后一位离开阿富汗的美国士兵，他于 2021 年 8 月在夜视镜下登上最后一架离开喀布尔的 C-17 运输机。

曾担任打击伊斯兰国联盟总统特使的布雷特·麦格克告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，唐纳休是“他那一代最有影响力的指挥官之一”，而美国特种作战司令部前司令、退役将军托尼·托马斯称他为“一代领袖”。

此次罢免行动招致了来自退役军方领导人和各党派议员的批评。

“迫使[多纳休]下台的决定更多地反映了赫格塞斯的为人，而不是多纳休将军的为人，”北卡罗来纳州共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯上周在X网站上发帖写道，称此举是“一位领导五角大楼的部长犯下的又一个不必要的错误，他以兄弟文化式的虚张声势而非克制、谦逊和对世界上最精锐部队的谨慎管理来领导五角大楼。”

退役中将本·霍奇斯曾任美国陆军欧洲司令，他在自己的帖子中称多纳休是“当今陆军中最优秀的士兵”。他还写道：“克里姆林宫和恐怖组织得知他即将离开，一定会感到欣慰。”

据《新闻周刊》报道，欧洲官员担心此次撤军预示着美国将从欧洲大陆撤出约 8 万名美军。

就在赫格塞斯批评欧洲盟友国防开支过低并宣布对驻欧美军进行为期六个月的审查几天后，这一消息传出。

曾指挥击毙奥萨马·本·拉登的突袭行动的退役海军上将威廉·麦克雷文在《大西洋月刊》上撰文指出，这些解职“确实存在一种风险，即高级军官在提供最佳建议时会过于谨慎，因此，军事误判的可能性会急剧增加。”

一位美国军方官员告诉《新闻周刊》，陆军第三装甲军司令凯文·阿德米拉尔中将是接替多纳休在威斯巴登的领跑者，但尚未做出最终决定，而且该提名需要参议院确认。

多纳休将于7月9日在土耳其伊兹密尔举行的仪式上正式将北约司令一职移交给其副手、英国中将杰兹·贝内特。欧洲盟军最高司令部发言人马丁·奥唐纳上校告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网，贝内特将担任代理司令，直到任命另一位美国军官为止。

多纳休在告别致辞的最后提出了一个问题。

“当人们问我，‘嘿，CD，在美国陆军欧洲和非洲司令部工作是什么感觉？’我只需要告诉他们，我为能成为美国陆军首屈一指的作战司令部的一员而感到多么自豪和无比感激。”

凯蒂·利文斯通是《防务新闻》和《军事时报》的乌克兰特派记者。她常驻基辅，自俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰之初便开始报道此事。她曾是富布赖特学者，其获奖作品发表于欧洲和美国的多家媒体。