Chief of Staff: Allied forces operation replacing ATO to be headed by person having military tact
Ukraine's military leadership will head the allied forces operation (AFO) which the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in the Donbas is being reformatted into.
As reported by Censor.NET citing Ukrinform, Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Viktor Muzhenko said in an interview with Radio Svoboda.
"The law, which was signed by Ukraine's president on Feb. 20, systematizes the use of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the fulfillment of the tasks they performed in the ATO and a change of the format of the main operation. The ATO will be completed, and we will proceed to the allied forces operation. This foresees a clear structure of the management system, subordination of certain forces and means to military leadership, the creation of the allied operational headquarters as the main governing body of this operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Muzhenko said.
According to him, this will help systematize the involvement of Armed Forces units and forces of other components of the security sector and "use the Armed Forces more effectively and within the legal framework."
He added that the allied forces headquarters would be headed by a "person with combat experience."
"We have respective nominations. They need a certain procedure of approval. After that they will be submitted to the Ukrainian president at the earliest possible time for approval of such a candidate. It will be a person who has combat experience and sufficient skills, knowledge and practical experience to perform such tasks," Muzhenko said.
As reported, on Feb. 20, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law on the peculiarities of state policy on ensuring Ukraine's state sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which reformats the ATO and defines Russia as an aggressor.
