President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a review of personnel distribution within Ukraine’s combat units after frontline soldiers complained of severe imbalances during his recent visit to the front. Zelenskyy instructed Chief of the General Staff Andriy Hnahov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa to conduct a detailed inspection and propose corrective measures.
Palisa — a former commander of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade — acknowledged that the problem is neither new nor isolated.
“This issue has existed for years. I knew about it when I commanded a brigade myself,” Palisa wrote on Facebook. “But this is a painful conversation that cannot be postponed any longer. We must streamline the system so that it works fairly for everyone. In my opinion, the current level of mobilization makes this possible.”
Uneven reinforcement for combat brigades
As MilitaryLand reported earlier in Loyalty Over Legacy: Sirskyi’s New Army, units favored by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Sirskyi — particularly assault formations — continue to receive significantly higher numbers of personnel and equipment compared to other frontline brigades. At the same time, well-known veteran units such as the 30th and 72nd Mechanized Brigades remain critically undermanned, operating at roughly 30 percent of their strength.
This imbalance was also highlighted by Babel.ua in an interview with Valerii Manko, commander of the Assault Forces. According to information obtained by the outlet, in just one month, a single assault regiment received as many personnel as one-third of all Air Assault Brigades combined. Manko denied the claim, but admitted that assault units have priority selection at training centers over other brigades.
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