Commander-in-Chief Drapatyi moves away from predecessor Syrskyi's micromanagement – UP

Mykhailo Drapatyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has chosen to move away from the micromanagement practised by his predecessor Oleksandr Syrskyi, opting instead to decentralise command.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article (English translation to be available soon)

Quote: "The first word brigade and corps commanders use to describe the first few months of Drapatyi's tenure is 'freedom'. Unlike his predecessor, who would tell some brigade commanders how and where to fight – even specifying the coordinates where a position should be set up – Drapatyi has chosen a different approach. He has opted to decentralise command, moving away from the 'micromanagement' that has already become widely known to the public."

Details: Ukrainska Pravda understands that the commander-in-chief no longer commands troops directly but does so through the troop groupings of the relevant operational commands, in line with the military chain of command. This means that soldiers receive their orders from their immediate commanders.

After taking office, Drapatyi also somewhat reorganised the system of troop groupings. In particular, he disbanded the Skhid (East) Grouping of Forces, commanded by Viktor Nikoliuk – presumably because he was dissatisfied with Nikoliuk's performance – and merged Dmytro Voloshyn's Kursk Grouping of Forces into Mykhailo Shandar's Pivnich (North) Grouping of Forces.

There are now six troop groupings operating across the entire front: Pivnich (North), Pivden (South), Zakhid (West), the Joint Forces Grouping, and two recently established by Drapatyi – Centre, commanded by Andrii Biletskyi, and Azov, commanded by Denys Prokopenko.

Ukrainska Pravda sources say the move away from hands-on management of brigades and corps has brought another change: Drapatyi no longer spends several hours every day hearing reports from all commanders, as Syrskyi did.

"Syrskyi would hear reports from everyone every day and could give specific instructions on how to respond to developments, including where troops should advance… Drapatyi doesn't do that; that's the job of the troop grouping commanders. Drapatyi focuses on strategic and systemic issues. And when commanders do speak to the commander-in-chief, he isn't interested in a standard report on 'what happened', but in statistics, analysing problems and finding solutions – in other words, what conditions need to be created for a particular commander to accomplish their mission. And that's the right approach," a senior military officer told Ukrainska Pravda.

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