Zaluzhnyi: By the time of the full-scale invasion, the reform of the command and control authorities was completed only at the strategic level

Before the full-scale invasion, the reform of the command and control authorities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was completed only at the strategic level.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2021-2024, discussed this in his article “On the Organization of the Command System in the Armed Forces of Ukraine” on Militarnyi.

He regards the implementation of the order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine No. 141 of 29.03.2019, which separated the functions of the Minister of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The function of forming state defence policy was clearly distinguished from the function of its implementation. Likewise, the planning of capability development was separated from the operational (day-to-day) activities of the General Staff and the military command structures,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi wrote.

In addition to the separation of functions in the military-political leadership, for the first time in Ukraine, the function of generating forces was separated from their use.

“The generation of forces became the primary task of the commanders of the services and individual branches of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They were now responsible for the development of their subordinate forces, their technical equipment, comprehensive support, training, and readiness to carry out assigned missions,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi noted.

And within the framework of state defense tasks, the use of forces transferred from different commands was ensured by the Joint Forces Commander through the Joint Operational Headquarters subordinate to him. In the future, it was to become the Joint Forces Command.

“As it happened, I was among its principal implementers — first at the strategic level, then operationally. I came to understand the full depth of what was arguably the first truly fundamental reform of Ukraine’s military command system,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi shared.

According to the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the reform of the command and control bodies was radically different at the operational and tactical levels.

“Reforms had barely begun and were far from complete. At the tactical level, they hadn’t even started,” Zaluzhnyi stated about the situation with the operational and tactical levels at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

In practice, this meant that structures and procedures were already in place at the strategic level, in accordance with the principles of unified command, while at the operational and tactical levels, everything remained in fact in transition.

“Later, the absence of a functioning vertical — particularly in training and force generation — began to cause serious problems,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi wrote.