Ukraine’s military unveils major change: “Adapting to the challenges”

Ukraine has started restructuring its military command, Kyiv’s top soldier said on Monday.

The armed forces’ commander in chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Monday in a Facebook that Kyiv’s highest-ranking officials were trying to “strengthen the army even in the difficult conditions” of wartime.

“The reform of the organizational structure of the Armed Forces is in progress,” he said, saying the military was moving to a corps-based structure. This is a way of organizing units under certain commands.”

Why It Matters

Ukraine’s military has borne the brunt of nearly three years of conflict with Russia, which has become Europe’s largest land war since World War II. The various branches of the armed forces have morphed during this time, and Ukraine became the first country in the world to introduce a dedicated unmanned systems force last year.

Ukraine is also looking at how it can reform its military recruitment, a senior official told the Associated Press late last month, as Kyiv wrestles with the long-standing challenge of keeping its ranks filled without pulling down the country’s conscription age.

What To Know

Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported this past November that the military was preparing a road map to switch to a corps-based structure designed to make the armed forces more efficient. According to Ukrainian media reports, some brigades in the military were merged into corps back in 2023.

Ukrainian military news outlet Militarnyi reported this past October that Ukraine had added a new army corps to its ground forces, each of which encompasses four or five mechanized brigades, plus other battalions and units.

In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he supported a move toward a corps system for the military if it “reduces bureaucracy.”

“It is up to the military to decide,” he said, according to comments published by the presidential office. “If the corps system they are proposing today will reduce the gap between a general and a soldier, if this bureaucracy will be reduced, let them do their best to reduce it.”

In his evening address in late January, Zelensky said officials had discussed “concrete details” on forming new corps within the military.

“The modernization of the army system has no alternatives,” he said.

What People Are Saying

Volodymyr Zelensky said in November 2024: “An officer must see a soldier. For me personally, a general who has never stepped into a trench is not a general, despite their experience, with all due respect. Today, the toughest situation is on the front line, in the trench.”

What Happens Next

It’s not clear how possible peace talks, expected to be brokered by President Donald Trump, will affect the conditions surrounding the plans for military reform. But as fighting rages on for the moment, the coming weeks “will be difficult for our troops,” the army chief said.