The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, states that there is a sufficient number of personnel to carry out rotations and replace those servicemen who have been on positions for over 60 days.
"A special instruction was developed that defines the procedure for conducting this replacement, the procedure for preparing and creating units that must be prepared to replace servicemen who have been on positions for a long time, over 60 days. And in fact, this entire replacement turns into a special operation… Some criticize that we supposedly lack personnel, people. We know the situation, we know how many servicemen are deployed to the area of operation, how many are on positions. And I can confidently state that this process is adequately provided with the number of people," Syrskyi said in an interview with TSN, aired on Tuesday.
He noted that not all forces and means in the rear are involved in the Armed Forces to support that number of servicemen: "those on positions are several times fewer than those in rear areas."
"Therefore, everything is defined. And the process of the first rotation is now underway. It is not simple everywhere, primarily where active hostilities are taking place. Of course, this process is complicated… In some cases, we use special operations forces – where the situation is truly difficult – to ensure this process," the Commander-in-Chief said.
According to Syrskyi, every day they directly analyze how many servicemen have been withdrawn, how many have been replaced, "where this process is successful, where not entirely, and appropriate measures are taken."
At the same time, he emphasized that during the rotation process, decisions are sometimes made to leave certain positions. "On some positions, sometimes decisions need to be made, perhaps even at my level, because when we understand that we cannot guarantee evacuation or replacement there, because these servicemen simply will not reach there and will be killed. Therefore, under certain conditions, it is better to simply withdraw personnel from this position, which no longer plays any role, and this must be a decision. We should not deceive ourselves and create illusions that, say, a separate position located in an infiltration zone can provide any deterrence against the enemy. Mostly, its role is reduced only to that of an observation post that informs its commanders about noticing the movement of any enemy troops or groups," Syrskyi said.
