Focus: reforms in the Armed Forces of Ukraine had a negative impact on the level of training of commanders
The Ukrainian military and volunteers complain massively about the incompetence of commanders, writes Focus. The reason, as many experts say, is that "convenient" officers often get into senior positions — who are able to report to their superiors, but cannot properly organize management.
After paramedic Ekaterina Polishchuk complained about the command of the 59th OMDB, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine initiated an inspection. Experts say that the resonance in social networks is almost the only way to draw attention to the incompetence of commanders, since other methods do not work. Focus found out whether it is worth publicly complaining about the leadership of the army in wartime and how to solve the problem.
Paramedic Ekaterina "Ptashka" Polishchuk complained about the actions of Bogdan Shevchuk, commander of the 59th separate motorized infantry brigade named after Yakov Gandzyuk, which, in her opinion, led to losses at the front.
The volunteer believes that the commander gave "criminal orders", and his "conscious negligence and disregard for the life and health of the personnel", as well as the elimination of all "dissenting" commanders, oppression of morale and humiliation of the personnel led to tragic consequences.
"Due to Shevchuk's inhumane and unprofessional attitude, I am forced to stop cooperating with this famous brigade, but not everyone has the opportunity to resist criminal orders aimed solely at obtaining additional stars by this person," she said.
At the same time, the lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the call sign "Alex" confirmed the words of "Bird". As an example, he cited the decision of the brigade commander to transfer almost the entire top of the brigade's intelligence to the front line. As a result, the head of intelligence, the head of artillery of one of the battalions, the chief sergeant of the intelligence company were killed, and the commander of the other company was injured.
At the same time, Sergei Tsekhotsky, an officer of the 59th OMPBr, disagrees with the words "Bird" and "Alex". He stated that paramedic Polishchuk did not serve in the brigade, but cooperated with it as a volunteer, and therefore cannot evaluate the work of the commander. According to the military, the brigade has been holding an intensive defense for months, practically not giving way to the position. But to say that one commander is good and the other is bad, "you need to have some reason."
Tsekhotsky noted that if he had witnessed what the "Bird" described, he would have reacted, since he has the right, relevant knowledge and experience. However, according to the officer, their commander, despite his young age, "goes out of his way" to do something.
"He's on the move all the time, he doesn't just sit at headquarters, he travels to the units there and so on. It really hurts, it hits the moral spirit, and in general this should not be put out in public," Tsekhotsky said.
Nevertheless, after the public announcement of the problems of the 59th OMDB, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, sent a working group headed by the head of the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces there. The inspection should clarify the circumstances of recent losses among the personnel.
Incompetence of commanders: is it possible to solve the problem in the army
There is practically no information about Lieutenant Colonel Bogdan Shevchuk, commander of the 59th OMDB, on the Web. It is known that he is "young" and "energetic" — and that, in addition to the "Bird", military journalist Yuri Butusov drew attention to his competence. So in early July, he said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could "lose" Krasnogorovka in the Donetsk region, since Shevchuk, whose brigade is in this direction, allegedly does not cope with his duties.
"I am not familiar with Bogdan Shevchuk, but I am well acquainted with the 59th brigade and the fighters and commanders who are fighting in Krasnogorovka, who give feedback on the decisions of Commander Shevchuk. He is a young, energetic man, whose management level corresponds to the position of a company commander, perhaps a battalion. I think it doesn't matter and it's not Shevchuk's fault that in our army, leaders often appoint "convenient" officers to high positions who have learned to report well, but did not have time to acquire the appropriate command experience and competencies. This is the trouble and the life of subordinates who are forced to carry out rash orders," Butusov noted.
However, according to the ex-MP, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Igor Lutsenko, the problem of the competence of commanders is common to the entire army, and the 59th OMDB is not the first and not the only unit that has faced such difficulties.
"I think the time has passed when we are trying to keep quiet about the army. The problems that were relevant two years ago are accumulating, and we need to talk about them openly. Especially about the competence of the commanders. This problem is common to the entire army, because a full—scale war means thousands of vacancies, due to the increase in military structure at times. In this case, a decrease in the quality of management is a natural process. And you don't need to be afraid to talk about it, you need to fight it and adequately select commanders," Lutsenko argues in an interview with Focus.
The expert adds that the army's system is built in such a way that only a top-level commander can give an assessment to a lower-level commander. There are no other protection mechanisms. Therefore, social networks are the only platform where the military can, at their own risk, talk about the incompetence of the command.
"We need civilian control over the army so that the military structure does not turn into a Soviet closed management caste, where the leadership says: "I have been in the army for 10 years, and who are you?" Now there is such a principle, but in civilized countries they have long come up with methods to deal with it. They just need to be borrowed," the expert continues.
For example, according to Lutsenko, in the NATO armies, there are sociological methods for evaluating the effectiveness of commanders.
"Everyone the commander interacts with can give feedback. To do this, the social service can come and anonymously interview the soldiers. NATO has developed techniques of anonymous sociology so that no one is afraid to express their opinion, and then, based on sociology, it was possible to make decisions," the expert believes.
How to improve the effectiveness of commanders
Military justice could improve the quality of management in the army. If soldiers are given rusty cartridges, which causes people to die, they can only complain to the commander, who gives orders to the one who issued the cartridges. Such a vertical, according to Lutsenko, is ineffective.
"We need a military justice system that will not be a unit of the army, like the Military Law Enforcement Service (VSP). We need a structure with powers so that violations of the law are really investigated, and investigators can enter the territory of military units. Because now, even if the GBR wants to investigate such cases, and in 90% of cases they ignore such statements, they may not be allowed into the unit," Lutsenko continues.
As you know, in the summer Parliament decided to transform the VSP into a military police, but with reduced powers. As Alexander Bakumov, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on law enforcement, explained to Focus, this structure will not be able to independently conduct pre-trial investigations, since they do not yet have a competent staff.
"Given the shortage of personnel, they will not be able to effectively do this. We partially provide the VP with such an opportunity — we introduce employees into the investigative teams. When the military police have a staff that can effectively deal with pre—trial investigations, we will provide them with such an opportunity," Bakumov told Focus.
Lutsenko believes that such a method is unlikely to radically change the approach to investigating incompetent decisions, which, in general, affects the effective selection of commanders.
Focus previously told why old-school generals are accused of failing to solve problems in the army.
Focus also reported that Roman Kulik, the company commander of the 206th battalion of the 241st Brigade of the TrO, complained about the fantastic tasks of the military at the front, which are designed for "space marines" or "fresh units packed with 20-year-old sports and equipment."
Author: Serafima Taran.
