Zelensky reacted to the scandal around the transfer of aviation technicians to the infantry
14 January 23:25
President Vladimir Zelensky has instructed the commander of the Air Force not to reduce the number of specialists that the Air Force needs to perform combat tasks. Zelenskyy said this in his evening video message, Komersant ukrainskyi reported
Zelensky said that he had a separate conversation with the acting commander of the Air Force Anatoly Kryvonozhko. He also instructed the commander of the Air Force to clarify to the public the situation with the transfers of military personnel to the infantry.
“A separate conversation with the commander of the Air Force. Today there was a lot of different information, indignation and discussions – on transfers. I instructed to clarify everything to the society and not to reduce the composition of specialists that the Air Force needs to perform combat tasks – our aviation, air defense and mobile fire groups,” – said Zelensky.
It should be noted that today, January 14, MPs Maryana Bezuglaya and Oleksiy Honcharenko reported that Air Force servicemen are transferred to the infantry. They referred to the received reports of servicemen.
“Now from the Air Force, according to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the AFU Sirsky, intensively transfer people to the infantry: technicians, mechanics, other specialists. Mobile firing groups are being reduced and entire regions are being exposed. At the same time, headquarters are not reduced, and even secretly continue their expansion to fill officer positions. In particular, a division is being created, etc.,” Bezuglaya wrote.
“Now a blatant situation is developing in the Armed forces of Ukraine. We are talking about the Air Force, primarily pilots, mechanics, which today – came actually a command from the General Staff – to transfer them to the infantry. The same is happening with communicators, with sappers, with logistics … This is a colossal challenge. People, officers who have been training for years, years of study…. are being sent to the infantry today,” Goncharenko said.
The MP added that many military men write to him and tell him that those who detect aerial targets or teach to detect them are also being taken to the infantry.
“So the next massive shelling we will meet without military men who detect aerial targets? Is this the kind of brilliant decisions of the General Staff we have? I realize that I am not a military man, but even a non-military person understands the absurdity of this decision. The next massive shelling we can meet without the military, which detects Russian missiles, because they are taken to the infantry,” wrote Goncharenko.
Subsequently, the video message of the servicemen was published by bloggers and volunteers Igor Lachenkov and Sergei Sternenko. According to the reports that emerged, it was also about those who shoot down drones and missiles.
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Amid the resonance around this news, the General Staff of the AFU confirmed the transfer of Air Force servicemen to the Ground Forces.
“The situation on the front is not easy, there are not enough infantrymen in many areas. The decision to strengthen land brigades on the front line at the expense of servicemen from units of other genera and types of the AFU is a forced step of the military leadership to strengthen our defense,” the statement said.
The General Staff assured that acutely deficient specialists of the Air Force’s engineering and aviation service, who service airplanes, were “not planned and are not planned to be transferred to infantry units.”
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Commander-in-Chief of the AFU Oleksandr Syrskyy prohibited the transfer of specialists of high-tech specialties and those who were trained abroad on foreign models of weapons and military equipment.
At the same time, “certain categories” of personnel of the Air Force, as well as other types and genera of the AFU “after preliminary training in training centers” strengthen the Army, Airborne Assault Troops and the like.
The General Staff also reported that the Air Force is “increasing the regular number of technical and flight personnel.”
