Audit of losses announced by Fedorov is correct intention that could change doctrine of war – Butusov

Butusov commented on the audit of losses announced by Fedorov

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s initiative could indeed change the situation in planning combat operations and organizing the Ukrainian military.

Yurii Butusov, platoon commander of unmanned systems in the Khartiia Brigade, said this, Censor.NET reports.

Details

"I believe this is a fundamentally important statement which, in my view, allows us to change the doctrine of war completely. The doctrine of conducting combat operations, the doctrine of combat employment. Because the main reason why we have heavy, significant losses that could have been avoided is that Ukraine completely lacks a mechanism for studying its existing combat experience," he noted.

"I believe Fedorov’s desire to conduct an audit is a very correct intention. Every minister, every state leader should conduct an audit. And this audit must be transparent enough so that his own actions and words can later be subjected to audit as well," the commander said.

Butusov recalled that he had repeatedly spoken about the absence in Ukraine of a key basic NATO standard, the After Action Review, that is, a mechanism for professionally establishing the circumstances of a battle and conducting a professional after-action analysis.

"Instead of this, we only have legal mechanisms, internal investigations with administrative liability, and criminal investigations with criminal liability.

But there is no professional analysis. Because of this, no one wants to receive severe reprimands or criminal cases, so the real circumstances of what is happening in the war are concealed from bottom to top and especially from top to bottom," the commander explained.

Distortion of information

According to Butusov, information is distorted nowhere as much as at the very top, where decisions are made.

"This happens not only in Ukraine, but in any army, because the military is a hierarchical structure with a rigid chain of command. It is an executive mechanism. That is why every army, in every country in the world, seeks to improve through institutional change. In NATO countries, such changes are embodied in the U.S. Army’s TC 25-20 After Action Review standard. That is precisely the standard Ukrainian generals categorically do not want to introduce. They are afraid of the NATO standards they so readily talk about. And I believe the audit of losses proposed by Minister Fedorov is exactly that kind of mechanism, if it is implemented," he stressed.

Reason for losses

The commander noted that the main problem behind losses in the war is the inadequate assignment of tasks.

"If we look through court verdicts, through the prism of criminal cases, who is responsible for losses and for the loss of positions, for everything bad that happens on the front line, in most cases, all responsibility ends with company commanders. This is our most responsible command level. That is all. Beyond that, it ends. And political stories begin.

So, audit of losses is a key issue, and I strongly believe in it, and I hope it will work in the near future. I will definitely cover this situation. And when there is an audit of losses, there will then be an objective opportunity to officially ask certain commanders, within the framework of a professional investigation rather than an internal or criminal one, why do you have such losses? Is this your negligence, your incompetence? Or did someone else assign you such a task? To rush into some village, into some tree line, within a couple of hours, and hold it to the last without support," he concluded.