Ukrainian commander-in-chief orders mass transfer of soldiers from Ukraine's Air Force to infantry units
www.pravda.com.ua
Tue, 14 Jan 2025 15:17:28 +0200
Since 2024, combat brigades of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been replenished with soldiers transferred from Ukraines Air Force units.
This has continued into 2025.
The latest order from CommanderinChief Oleksandr Syrskyi on the transfer of personnel was received by the Air Force units on 11 January.
A Ukrainska Pravda source noted that more than 5,000 soldiers were to be transferred to the Ground Forces.
Sources Vitalii Horzhevskyi, an aircraft technician and staff sergeant of the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade, in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda and on Facebook an experienced senior officer of one of the Air Force units Details Horzheskyi is subject to transfer to the Ground Forces according to an order given on 11 January 2025.
Why this is important Mass transfers can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the Ukrainian Air Force.
That is why the Air Force personnel are trying to draw attention to the situation.
Quote from Horzhevskyi I have served in the 114th Brigade since 2014, repairing military equipment and maintaining its combat capability, such as Sovietmade MiG29 and MiG29A aircraft provided by our partners, Slovakia and Poland.
Since 2014, we were transferred to the Ground Forces voluntarily, and since 2022 voluntarily and en masse.
The mass transfers started in 2024 and 2025.
Last year, 250 people were taken from our unit.
This year, we received an order for 200 people.
I understand that we need to defend our country, but we also need aircraft.
We cant do anything without aircraft.
It needs to be constantly maintained in combat readiness.
Training an aviation specialist takes years of preparation and practice.
And I was told that I had to go and storm some forest belts.
Youre given an order, and you have to follow it.
Details Vitalii Horzhevskyi had been transferred to an infantry unit a rifle brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force.
After suffering an injury on 19 January 2023, he returned to his 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade.
Quote from an Air Force senior officer We started taking people to the Ground Forces in the spring of 2024.
But now it has reached a critical point the staffing of our units has dropped to about 50.
If we comply with the order of 11 January, which we received from the commanderinchief, the manning of our units will drop to 40.
During the last transfer, we were told that they were sending off unimportant specialists.
But you have to understand that an antiaircraft missile system is a weapon that requires collective effort.
Even if you send off a driver or a security guard, the effectiveness of the unit will drop.
For example, a mobile firing group needs five people to work effectively a MANPADS operator, a machine gunner, a person sitting behind a flashlight/spotlight/thermal imager, a person on the communications team, and a driver.
Nowadays, we consider a threeperson group to be the bare minimum.
If they send off more people now, then some threeperson teams will have to be disbanded, too.
Reducing the number of groups will mean missing air targets.
If there is no group, there is no one to shoot.
This is a problem for me, because I had people performing tasks.
How would I do that now The problem is getting bigger and bigger, and it is not being resolved.
For over a year, we have had no replenishment.
People are just being taken away from us.
Details Ukrainska Pravda noted that more than 200 servicemen are to be taken from each of the following Air Force brigades 138th Air Surveillance Brigade 96th AntiAircraft Missile brigade 39th and 831st Tactical Aviation brigades which are defending Kyiv 14th, 160th and 302nd AntiAircraft Missile brigades.
Ukrainska Pravda has seen Vitalii Horzhevskyis military ID card, which confirms his current place of service and rank and that he has been serving in the Ukrainian defence forces since 2011 in the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade since 2014.
Ukrainska Pravda also looked at another documenta combat duty logbookconfirming that the second source, who wished to remain anonymous, serves in the Air Force.
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