“The General Staff of the Armed Forces admitted that a certain number of military personnel from the Armed Forces were indeed reassigned, but this does not apply to air defense specialists who ensure the protection of Ukrainian skies”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“For the purpose of high-quality staffing of the military units that are being formed and are restoring combat capability, a certain number of servicemen from the units of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have been reassigned to positions in accordance with their military accounting specialties. At the same time, this does not apply to air defense specialists who ensure the protection of the Ukrainian sky,” the statement reads.
The situation on the battle line is difficult, and now the main thing is to hold the front, so the decision to transfer some servicemen of the rear units to the combat units is aimed at fulfilling this priority task, the headquarters explains.
The General Staff also notes that the number of downed Russian “shaheeds” has not decreased – air defense performs its tasks by distinguishing between real enemy attack drones and UAVs of an unknown type – mostly false targets, which are most often reported as “locationally lost” in reports on the repulse of air attacks.
Earlier, the British edition of The Guardian, citing two sources in the air defense units, wrote that the shortage at the front became so acute that the General Staff ordered the air defense units to release more people to send them to the front as infantry.
Read also: “Transferred to the infantry”: how military specialists fall into the trenches and why this is a problem for the Armed Forces
Last month, People’s Deputy Maryana Bezugla, who has a controversial political reputation, stated in her Telegram post that air defense forces are being transferred to infantry units, which will lead to a deterioration in the success rate of shooting down Russian UAVs.
Yuriy Ignat, a representative of the communications department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, confirmed that the transfers were taking place, saying that they were “very painful”, but he denied that it affected the number of air targets.