On meeting with Minister Umierov

Author: Yurii Butusov

A few days ago, I met with Defence Minister Rustem Umierov.

I am grateful to Mr Minister for the invitation, and if any specific measures and decisions are taken on the issues I have raised in the near future, I will be honoured.

The subject of the meeting is purely informational, no politics, no appointments or proposals. The public support for some of my critical publications and videos has an impact on the authorities, and the authorities have to take into account the information resonance. Therefore, in a few hours, I voiced the main critical issues that the military talk about in their communication with me at the front:

- On the doctrine of combat operations, and the ability of the Ukrainian Defence Forces to stop and defeat the Russian offensive right now, provided that adequate organisational and managerial decisions are made;

- On the promotion of military leaders to command positions, objective assessment of commanders of all levels, creation of a rating of commanders based on real indicators: enemy losses exclusively recorded on video; causes of enemy losses; our losses, including AWOL; causes of our losses with video analysis; consumption of all types of munitions.

- About modern methods for analysing and evaluating the course of hostilities and rapid response, After action review at all levels of command;

- On the organisational superiority of the Russian Armed Forces due to the divisional and corps system of organisation, the need to improve our organisation, and to eliminate the vinaigrette of dozens of dowry units;

- About the lines of defence that need to be adapted to protect against drones and to use drones;

- On the problems of deploying drone and anti-drone troops, planning the procurement of drones and anti-drone systems, when the number of units and subunits far exceeds the capacity to support them, there is no unified planning, tactics and organisation, and there is no coordination;

- As an example of the criminal consequences of the formation of new inexperienced and incapacitated brigades, in the face of chronic understaffing and lack of provision of experienced and combat-ready brigades, I described in detail the problems that resulted from the decisions of some officials of the OC "West", CSR, OTG, OSGT regarding the formation and use of the 155th and 32nd mechanised brigades;

- We talked about problems in the organisation of defence procurement, the criminal supply of defective mines to the army, which continues with impunity and irresponsibility, and the defence procurement agency.

I have already outlined my proposals many times.

It seemed to me that Rustem Umierov is a sincere person who is honestly trying to hear criticism of the MoD's actions. I'm not sure whether he will actually be able to do anything, because he has superiors above him and there is a lot to learn and do.

In my broadcasts, I have repeatedly said that I believe that the Minister of Defence is currently zero for the army, a "cellophane", with no influence and no understanding of him by the troops, crimes and disorder continue in many areas of the Ministry of Defence, and there is no accountability. I did not soften anything in my assessments. If there are no changes, the minister will soon be replaced with a new lightning rod, but the price of no changes in our government every day is hundreds of lives of Ukrainian soldiers, that we are losing, cities and villages captured by the enemy.

But I always believe in the likelihood of change if a person tries to engage in a direct dialogue. That's why I tried to be as helpful as possible, to back up my assessments with facts and figures that are easy for the minister to verify.

So, I will also continue to inform the public about the problems in the army, because this is what, in particular, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy demands in the Resilience Plan of 19.11.2024:

"We should not be afraid to talk about difficult things and problems in the army. Effective solutions are possible only if we have an honest conversation. About mobilisation. About reservations. About AWOL.

Problems need to be overcome, not concealed. The causes must be found out and removed."

Yurii Butusov, Censor. NET