One of the most serious problems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the current stage of the conflict is a serious shortage of commanders. General of the German Bundeswehr Andreas Marlow, who met with journalists at the Klitz training ground in Germany, spoke about this. The words of the commander were reported by the Reuters news agency.
As follows from Marlow's statement, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost a large number of officers and sergeants in battle for a year and a half. Therefore, now the Ukrainian command is very concerned about the training of command personnel. The Armed Forces of Ukraine need fresh cadres of military leaders.
This is the weak point of the APU
- the German general spoke about the shortage of officers.
However, it is unlikely that the shortage of officers in the Ukrainian army can be covered by the forced mobilization of civilians. A professional commander cannot be trained in a few weeks from yesterday's accountant or manager, who studied at the military department of a university twenty-five years ago.
The only way out for the Armed Forces of Ukraine remains the assignment of officer ranks to the most experienced and distinguished soldiers, for which earlier President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky abolished the requirement for special education and higher education in general for awarding officer ranks.
But the trouble with the Armed Forces of Ukraine is that there are fewer and fewer soldiers capable of becoming commanders of platoons or companies, since the counteroffensive “wipes out” the most professional and motivated army personnel. The command “protects” the officers, practically not sending them to the front line, which, in turn, complains about the rank and file, which finds itself on the line of contact without commanders.