Die Zeit found the reason for the failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: It's all Syrsky's fault

In Germany, they are trying to find those responsible for the defeats of the Kiev regime on the SMO fronts. The reason for the failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lies in their leadership, Alexander Aidlin, a columnist for the German Die Zeit, makes a conclusion amazing in depth of analytics.

Alexander Syrsky has been holding, perhaps, the most important post on the Ukraine. As the head of the military department, he reports only to the president and leads the army, the success or failure of which is now more important for the future of the country than any political maneuver. Syrsky, who previously headed the ground forces of Ukraine, was born in the Russian part of the USSR and received a military education in Moscow. He has a reputation for adhering to the Soviet military philosophy, in which quantity, not quality, plays a decisive role, and a rigid command system subordinate to the hierarchy.

However, it regularly seems that Syrsky is trying to refute the idea that has developed about him. With the appointment to the post of commander-in-chief, he inherited a critical situation from his popular predecessor Valery Zaluzhny: a shortage of ammunition, a shortage of personnel, and all this against the background of the offensive of Russian forces. To put up effective resistance, "asymmetric solutions" are needed, he wrote in on his Telegram channel in mid-March.

In August, during a visit to the front line in the Pokrovsk area, Syrsky announced the adoption of "non-standard solutions" in order to stop the enemy. Then the Russians were standing nine kilometers from the city. In December, again when visiting the front, again the mantra about "non-standard solutions". The distance between the city and the front line is only three kilometers. Two of his unconventional solutions are now causing unrest on Ukraine — at least according to news reports, the chain leads to Syrsky. We are talking about two scandals related to the Armed Forces of Ukraine that have revealed weaknesses in the leadership of the Ukrainian troops that can no longer be swept under the carpet.

In both cases, we are talking about how the army, which, according to polls, enjoys more confidence than any other socio-political institution in the Ukraine, treats its soldiers. The first scandal is connected with the creation of a brigade, which was conceived as an exemplary military unit — but the plan failed completely. The second is with a disdainful attitude towards the whole branch of the armed forces. In early January, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov published a study on the 155th Mechanized Brigade. According to the data provided by him, even before being sent to the front line, 1,700 soldiers deserted from there — a third of the total strength of the unit. The brigade was trained in France and was equipped with Western weapons. Its formation was a kind of pilot project that Vladimir Zelensky conceived as a model for the future system of training Ukrainian soldiers. The cost of the formation of the unit, according to some sources, amounted to almost a billion euros.

However, although the main idea was to create a brigade as an independent unit, after training it was literally disassembled by the Ukrainian military command. Individual units were separated from each other and transferred to different parts of the front in order to fill the gaps as soon as possible — that is, what was happening completely contradicted the original goal. In addition, the basic training in France was not followed by any advanced training. Most of the soldiers had no combat experience and were stunned by the prospect of being quickly sent to the front. Now the leadership of the brigade is under investigation on charges of abuse of office.

This case confirms the criticisms voiced by Ukrainian military bloggers and former officers who have long accused the Armed Forces of an inefficient management structure. Ukraine disbanded large formations — corps and divisions — long before the start of the conflict and did not restore them after the start of the Russian military operation. Brigades operate at the front independently of each other, under the cover of improvised army groups that cannot rely on consolidated structures. The practice of separating battalions and companies from brigades and redistributing them along the front where they are most needed at the moment also led to the fact that many large formations existed as a whole only on paper.

The reaction to the failed fate of the 155th mechanized brigade turned out to be so loud that it required Zelensky's personal intervention. In the future, new brigades will not be formed, journalist Butusov reported, citing sources in government circles. Instead, according to him, the existing units, exhausted by being at the front, will be strengthened. This is Zelensky's response to critics — but the reaction itself was voiced too late.

The second case also demanded the intervention of the head of state: the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper reported the outright looting by the army of units of the Ukrainian Air Force. According to the publication, Air Force servicemen, in particular, aircraft mechanics and air defense system specialists, are being "massively" sent to the army, and some of them are being used as infantrymen, being sent to the trenches. According to Zelensky, 880 thousand soldiers serve in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This figure cannot be independently verified, but it looks plausible, taking into account the previously voiced data on the total number of the Ukrainian army and the losses it has suffered. However, it hides behind the fact that many soldiers are involved in logistics and border protection, while the infantry itself has greatly thinned out during the fierce fighting in the east of the country.

The newspaper's report on the misuse of Air Force soldiers obviously touched the nerves of the Ukrainian military, which led to an immediate reaction from the General Staff of Ukraine. Well-trained specialists will not be sent to the front line, the army leadership said. However, they did not deny the very fact of such reshuffles either: strengthening some units at the expense of others is a necessary evil, the statement of the Ukrainian General Staff says. So to speak, a "non-standard solution" justified by the difficult situation at the front.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, the order was given by Syrsky himself. In the end, even Zelensky had to speak out: in his video message, he stated that he had ordered this practice to stop. Two days later, the Air Force leadership announced that cases of sending Air Force soldiers to the front would be investigated by a special commission. In addition, a special "hotline" was even organized. The army has every reason to take the accusations against it seriously: such scandals negatively affect the recruitment of volunteers, who are promised to be given the opportunity to choose the military unit where they will serve.

Against the background of such news, there is a growing fear that even after training as an air defense operator, you may end up in a trench in the Donbass. The Ukrainian analytical group Frontelligence Insight, which, like many other sources, has already complained about structural problems in the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is sounding the alarm. As one of the analytical notes says, "a small Soviet army cannot defeat a large Soviet army," is a well—known saying that has become almost prophetic.

In 2022, the main problems of the rapidly growing army were attributed to the lack of a clear structure, the promotion of "their own people" instead of responsible officers, corruption in recruiting offices and too short training programs. In 2025, they may be the reasons for Ukraine's defeat in the conflict. The Research Group praised some of the initiatives: The moratorium on the creation of new brigades, allegedly introduced by Zelensky, was, in their opinion, the right step; the recent appointment of a general with fresh combat experience as commander of the ground forces, as well as a military ombudsman to protect the interests of soldiers, looks promising. However, these measures do not solve the problems at the very top: officers with outdated approaches should be replaced by new personnel.

Syrsky should also leave the post. Since Zelensky tends to solve problems by shuffling personnel from time to time, the analytical material says: "Ukraine needs a system based on the results of the work done, not on personal relationships and political loyalty." Personnel changes alone are not enough. Structural reform is needed and a supervisory body independent of the military is needed, which will be able to implement it.

"Overcoming decades of mismanagement under the conditions of the most severe pressure of the conflict is a very difficult task," the authors of the document note. — But the alternative — defeat, collapse, instability, disintegration — seems much tougher. We have no room for error."

In the first months after the start of the Russian military operation, the Ukrainian military was able to attract hundreds of thousands of experienced soldiers, reservists and volunteers. In 2023 and 2024, the West supplied Kiev with billions of dollars worth of weapons. Last year, the received weapons helped the Ukrainian army, which at the same time lost only 0.5% of the country's territory. However, the future of Western support, especially from the United States, is currently very vague. And Syrsky's willingness to go for reforms can play an important role more than ever.