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The outgoing chief of Ukraine’s ground forces said on Wednesday that his command was in a “state of managerial stagnation” when he first took his post in November.
Writing on social media on Wednesday, Mykhailo Drapatyi listed a slew of issues he discovered last year, including an “atmosphere of fear, lack of initiative, closure to feedback, indifference to personnel problems, a facade of discipline, a deep gap between headquarters and units.”
Drapatyi wrote that he replaced half of the leaders under him, slamming what he said was systematic abuse, staffing decisions based on connections, and chaos within the officer ranks.
“There was not even a trace of a developmental spirit in command,” Drapatyi added.
The remarks from Drapatyi, who led Kyiv’s land forces for roughly six months, reflect an oft-discussed frustration in Ukraine’s military that it was thrown into war with an outdated structure and culture that cleaved to old Soviet habits.
Ukraine has urgently tried to initiate changes as it battles Russia on its own borders. Drapatyi, a 42-year-old general, was appointed command in November as part of a younger wave of leaders aimed at facilitating reform.
“I worked to break this system,” he wrote on Wednesday.
Drapatyi said one of his focuses was reshaping Ukraine’s training divisions, which he said also saw half of its leading officers removed.
Additionally, the general said he had to bring digitalization to training management and logistics systems, and introduced “psychological support tools” for soldiers.
“The Command of the Ground Forces is only at the beginning of change. A system does not change in a few months, but the vector has already been set, the team assembled, and the approaches revised,” he added.
Drapatyi stepped down from his post on June 1 in the aftermath of a Russian strike on a Dnipro training ground that killed 12 Ukrainians.
While announcing his resignation, Drapatyi blamed himself for the deaths of the soldiers, calling them young Ukrainians who were “supposed to learn, live, fight— not die.”
“The behavior of fighters matters, but the main responsibility always lies with the command,” he wrote.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summoned Drapatyi for a meeting on June 3, after which the latter was reassigned to the commander of the Joint Forces of Ukraine, another military branch that reports to the General Staff.
Zelenskyy said that in his new role, Drapatyi would focus “exclusively on combat issues.”
Shortly after Zelenskyy’s announcement, Drapatyi wrote that he would “remain in the ranks” and take on the new position assigned by the president.
“I am stepping down with a clear conscience,” he wrote on Wednesday.
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