Air Assault Forces commander cited Zelenskyy’s calls and told them to fix reinforcements situation themselves – Commander of 46th Brigade ’Kupol’
Anatolii Kozel Kupol, a battalion commander of the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade, shared details of his transfer to a training center and the real situation with personnel training.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported in a video published on Facebook.
According to the officer, the conversation with the commander of the Air Assault Forces (Maksym Myrhorodskyi in 2021–2024) took place in late February 2023. During the two-hour conversation, the commander assured him that the brigade’s level of training was high, but the real situation looked different.
"I would point out: who are you telling this to? I am the same age as you, and I worked my way up from the bottom. When you ask a soldier how many times he has thrown a live grenade, he answers: zero," the commander said. He added that the reinforcements practically did not use even a live-grenade simulator.
At the same time, the Air Assault Forces commander cited calls from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who asked about the situation: "Did you read it? Yes, I did. So what?" — the response was roughly like that. That is, they suggested deciding on your own how to fix the situation. The officer noted that there was a lot of criticism of the serving president in the comments.
"I said: Mr. Commander, I have already reported the low level of training — reinforcements arrive completely unprepared. In response, I heard: fine, you will train them, you will go to the training center. If the reinforcements are poor, you will train them yourself," the officer recalled.
The commander clarified that despite the formal demotion, he was offered to lead a training battalion: "I was the battalion commander of a combat battalion; I will become the battalion commander of a training one."
Background
In March 2023, the battalion commander of the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade, "Kupol," gave an interview to the American newspaper The Washington Post, where he spoke about losses and problems in the training of Ukrainian troops.
Later, the Air Assault Forces stated that the battalion commander of the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade, "Kupol," did not have permission to communicate with journalists. The Air Assault Forces called the losses voiced by "Kupol" "overstated" and confirmed that the battalion commander was being transferred to a position at one of the training centers of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces.
Later, Anatolii Kozel, known as Battalion Commander Kupol, clarified his remarks in the interview with The Washington Post about losses and the condition of the troops and urged people "not to look for betrayal where there is none."
