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A respected top Ukrainian military commander deplored a “culture of fear” that had plagued the ground forces until his appointment last year.
Mykhailo Drapatyi on Wednesday posted unusually candid remarks on his Facebook page about his six-month tenure, after he was removed from his post on June 3 and given a new command focused on frontline combat operations.
He had tendered his resignation earlier this month following a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training ground that killed 12 soldiers and injured more than 60.
The major general said that when he took up his job at the headquarters of the ground forces in November, he encountered “an atmosphere of fear, lack of initiative, unwillingness to accept feedback, indifference to personnel issues, pretence of discipline and a profound gap between the headquarters and units”.
“I’ve been working to break this system,” Drapatyi wrote.
The rare criticism from a member of the top brass comes as Kyiv struggles to restructure its armed forces, amid pressure from Washington and other allied capitals to improve the recruitment and training of soldiers.
Drapatyi’s comments also highlight persistent tensions in the top echelons of Ukraine’s military leadership even as Russian forces have been accelerating the pace of their advances in recent weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this month announced he was appointing Drapatyi as commander of the joint forces — a move he said would free the major general from the administrative responsibilities associated with the position of ground forces commander.
“Mykhailo Drapatyi will focus exclusively on combat issues, and has been appointed commander of the joint forces so that he can deal with the front,” Zelenskyy said on June 3. Drapatyi also retained separate command of an operational group involved in repelling Russian forces in some of the most intense parts of the frontline.
The president also named new heads of the air assault forces and of the general staff — but he has yet to appoint a successor for Drapatyi as commander of the ground forces.
Robert Brovdi, a former businessman who joined the military in March 2022 to create a small drone reconnaissance unit, became commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, a newly created branch of the Ukrainian military dedicated to drone warfare.
The Ukrainian military has been moving forward in recent months with the creation of a corps system meant to replace ad hoc command structures created on the frontline in the early months of the Russian invasion. The reform effort has also involved changing a complex training system that frontline brigades have often described as inadequate, forcing them to provide additional training when newly-mobilised soldiers reach their units.
When Drapatyi offered to resign after the training base in Dnipropetrovsk region was hit, he wrote that “mutual cover-up and impunity are poison for the army. I tried to eradicate it from the ground forces. But if tragedies repeat — it means my efforts were insufficient”.
His appointment to a more combat-focused command has been welcomed by observers. He will also retain command of the “Khortytsia” operational group, tasked in particular with dealing with the crucial Pokrovsk front where Russian forces have made significant progress in recent weeks.
“These are two important combat positions that will allow him to manage a significant area as well as the resources and strategic planning for the entire front,” wrote DeepState, a Ukrainian war monitoring group close to the ministry of defence.
“The only thing left is for him to be allowed to work and implement his plans.”
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