our conversation, i want to introduce you to the audience, serhiy ivanovich was born in vinnytsia, studied at the moscow higher military school, after his studies he served abroad, led a motorized rifle platoon in germany, ukraine, ukraine, he gave more than 30 years of his life to the armed forces of ukraine. in 2014, serhiy ivanovych will lead... in sector b, and this, friends, for a second, including the battles for the donetsk airport. later, from 2015 to 2017, serhii ivanovych headed the operational command of the east. deputy since 2018 chief of the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine, and from 2020 to 2024, commander of the united forces of ukraine. in... on october 22, serhiy ivanovych

was named one of the most influential military men of modern ukraine. despite such a brilliant career, serhii ivanovich you were fired for some reason. and i remember, on february 11 of this year, you wrote that you learned about your dismissal from the mass media. how did it happen? well, it turned out that... my position is subject to replacement by senior officers and belongs to the appointment president of ukraine. i was at the time of one of the tasks, and i was sent a message on messenger that there was a decree about my dismissal. before that , my management did not hold such conversations directly with me, and i... later clearly proved to

the management that i prefer to continue military service, as long as the war between the russian federation and ukraine continues, every military specialist must give his military service to the defense forces . i remember, in january 24th, you invited the media, a screening. training and preparation for possible invasions from the north, it was on volyn, then it was in zhytomyr oblast, i went to this shooting, and i remember, i don't know if it took place, but it was also planned for sumy oblast, then it seemed strange to me that such media activity, and now that we know that here you are shortly after this was released. i got

the impression that you, if you didn't know, at least suspected that you could be released, and that's why you decided to report to society about what's happening at the border right now, is that right? the fact is that after completing tasks in the east of our country in june in the 22nd year, he took over responsibility for the north of ukraine. well, accordingly , the work on preparing for the defense began. ah, when i took over the northern operational zone, there were not so many anti-tank mines laid, there was work to be done on the defensive lines, and it was also necessary to control the state of training of the troops, and these tasks were my focus as a commander of the operational-strategic... grouping

of troops north, that is, it was work that was directed in order to increase our capabilities, our directly defense capabilities. as for the coverage in the media, it was determined that every ukrainian who lives in the territory of volyn, rivne, zhytomyr, kyiv, chernihiv and sumy regions, as well as bohaduhiv district of kharkiv region. he understood that there are defense forces here, that the defense forces are strengthening the defense of the line of positions, carrying out demining of the area, and also carrying out the training of troops so that every ukrainian is sure that he is reliably protected, i believe that the strategic communications, which are components of the comprehensive support of any military operation, they must also be developed. and

they include strategic communication , including work with the media, therefore, in military affairs, all aspects must be given their due. sir sergey, why do you think you were fired? well, there are grounds on which decisions were made, and the decisions were not made by me. why were you fired and, or why were you given the opportunity to serve in the army at the disposal of the minister of defense of ukraine? this is all a decision of the military leadership. i am a soldier of my army, i, when aggression continues in... against ukraine, my place in the armed forces of ukraine. could it be somehow related to zaluzhny's resignation? well, there were rumors that there would be a team change. in general, in military

affairs, there is no such understanding as a team. zaluzhny's team or the team of another military leader, there is a provision on military service. military personnel must serve in accordance with these norms and rules, which have been prescribed for a long time, if a different decision is made, i, as a military man, i i do not have the right to discuss it, i will fulfill it, but my desire to serve the ukrainian people, summing up this moment, no one approached you, did not say that serhiy ivanovich, we want to dismiss you from the position you hold, such questions are not with me discussed, it is clear, what is your current status in the armed forces of ukraine? i am a servicewoman of the armed forces of ukraine, an active general, i am at the disposal of the minister of defense of ukraine and perform the tasks

assigned to me by the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine. that is, we can with you now it is safe to talk about the situation at the front. well, take it easy, we can talk. on any topic, but there are sometimes moments that are due to the appropriate secrecy, so looking at the question, but i am always open to communication with the media, the operation in kursk region has been going on for more than a month, and we are advancing on the enemy's territory, but retreating on our own, i would like to... understand to what extent it is justified, what is the reason, what is the purpose of this operation, would it not be more expedient to involve the forces that are currently being used in kurshchyna in the east of ukraine? well, any a military operation, and this one, in particular,

proceeds from a political goal that is determined. this political cop was voiced by a councilor. mykhailo padeluk. later, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, he outlined the strategic tasks performed by the course operation. directly, whether it would be expedient to use these forces in the east of our country, it was decided by those military leaders who made a strategic decision in order to achieve a political goal. is it appropriate? impractical, let's say the best solution, which will lead us to a total victory, such decisions, they are limited by resource provision, resource provision, first of all, this is the latest technological weapons, military equipment, and accordingly prepared

and trained personnel, which is necessary for the ukrainian army, so if such a resource is sufficient, then we... will win in all directions, but now the relevant military leaders have made such a decision, it was announced that this military operation should distract the enemy's forces from the east, at the moment of such a significant overturning of the enemy's forces from the east did not take place, a little more than 40 thousand enemy personnel were transferred there, but we will see... how will this operation end, will we believe in the armed forces of ukraine and the wisdom of military leaders? one of the main problems in ukraine today is mobilization, how do you assess how it is going now, how it was

in 2023? well, now there have been corresponding changes in the legislative field of ukraine. changes were adopted, the relevant laws, in accordance with which the mobilization is now underway, that's why it differs mobilization in the 23rd and in the 20th in the fourth year, by my specialty and training i am a commander who was responsible for the use of the armed forces of ukraine, therefore the issues of mobilization, equipment, staffing with military equipment did not belong to my competence, but as as a military expert, i can answer that the differences are due to changes in legislation. and what would you like to change in mobilization? we need to

ensure that every ukrainian follows the call to join the defense forces, so that the motivation of everyone who joins the ranks of the armed forces of ukraine and other components of the security and defense forces was the same as at the beginning of the invasion, when, following the call of the heart, queues were searched for each... military leaders. there is a separate problem with the training of the mobilized, sometimes there is information that people are not sufficiently prepared for battles, do you observe such a problem, and if so, how to solve it? when it started a large-scale invasion of the enemy, then to the ranks the armed forces of ukraine and other components

of the defense and security forces came first of all trained personnel, they were reservists of the first and second ranks, later there were also guys who had experience of serving and they were trained before that, so training in training centers in depending on the level. the training they had before mobilization, it was of different duration, but most of those who were called up for military service on mobilization were of higher quality in terms of training, the war continues, now those guys who have been on duty since 2022 suffered losses, other mobilized ones come to replace them. servicemen, indeed, these are not always those soldiers who had

the appropriate training and were mobilized at the beginning of the war, now the decision has been taken by the commander-in-chief of the labor forces of ukraine to increase the period of training of these servicemen. in general, in training centers, this is every type of the armed forces of ukraine. as i said earlier, they have their own training centers subordinate to them, in which they train personnel for ground forces, for air units forces, for the naval forces, special operations forces, i.e. each commander, he organizes the appropriate training, and the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine carries out general management of these processes. therefore, the criticism that is heard, it reaches

the relevant commanders, the relevant commanders and they are constantly working on it, so there are indeed problems, because the mobilization is ongoing, different people with different levels of training, with different perceptions, psychological readiness for conducting hostilities, and all these problems are a daily concern and it is the duty of everyone who... works in educational centers, this work continues every day, it is better to definitely work on it, but do they work on it and do they hear criticism of the problem of rotation and the fact that people who go to serve, they still do not have an explanation in any legal document as to how long they must serve, and of course this is a problem, because it is necessary to always tell the truth. true to the personnel who are mobilized, directly in

the military units, when these military units are used, it is already cyrina, who was previously under my command under those commanders who are conscious, who understand the personnel, who strive to preserve the personnel, they organized rotations directly during the execution of tasks, were from... the relevant units that performed tasks for a certain time on the front regions, then they were refused for rest and for further training in... units and this is how such work was carried out, i would like to note a very good such organization of work at the time when i was performing tasks in the east, this is in the 57th separate motorized infantry brigade, the same was done in the 24th separate mechanized brigade, in other brigades, that is, the commanders

worked on it, everything that exceeds the level of application is already... another responsibility of other officials, for in order to make it so that there is a rotation for the entire personnel, it is necessary to have a much larger number of relevant military units and units, this is partially done, but for a purely larger number of personnel in order to do it in a non-rotational composition. military unit, and the composition of the rotation of military units, for this a larger number of the military units themselves is needed, and this again depends on mobilization, so military leaders, battalion teams, brigades, they perform this during the execution of combat missions, and the military leadership depends on the presence of those brigades and battalions that carry out tasks

not in hot areas, they also take measures for rotation. not everything is good, there are problems, but believe me, they are working on it, trying to make it better, but the situation is what it is, what is needed to help to solve, well, to help solve this situation, it is necessary to create such a set of military units so that some fight and others recover, as we had, for example, when there was an operation of the united forces. we had 10 brigades in the area of ​​the operation of the united forces, and the other 10 brigades performed the tasks of rest, rehabilitation and further training at the points of permanent deployment, two sets of troops, each rotation was for six months, completed the task for six months, is at the point for six months permanent dislocation, and from them yours is yours

leave, a month or 45 days or sick leave, that is, the entire social... package was implemented, two sets of troops are needed, of course. mr. serhiy, i really want to ask you about the events of last year, about the counteroffensive in the south. in june of the 22nd year, i was part of the espresso film crew, i got to the advanced positions in the gulyaipil direction, we were 300 m from the russians' position, and i remember it well. the words of the military, who were with us at the time, that the russians dug in very hard and mined everything, it was summer 22nd year, and a year passes, there is a counteroffensive in this direction, it goes along the mines, the counteroffensive goes through all these powerful

russian trenches, and without aviation cover, i want, i... i know that this is not your responsibility, not you then managed this direction, but maybe you can explain why exactly this operation was planned in this way, and how would you evaluate its effectiveness? the effectiveness of this work can be assessed not only by me, but also by you, every average ukrainian, which is the result that concerns, why so, all of us. to understand that the attack it is usually very easily carried out when the enemy is weak, this is what happened with us in the kharkiv direction in september 22nd, when the enemy constantly advancing in the donetsk direction, he lowered his reserves from the north of the kharkiv region and exhausted these

reserves, they were not there , when our boys are on bandera'. cars on very fast equipment showed insane speeds of advancement of 60-40 km there per day, this was due to the fact that the enemy was weak, and directly there the enemy was strong, he strengthened his defensive border, he kept the appropriate reserves there and so on, in general, in order to advance, i emphasize once again either about... weak, or it must be made weak, this is done at the expense of fire damage, when his enemy force, armored vehicles, his artillery systems, and the enemy gradually reduces its combat potential, it becomes less, and then the advantage in manpower and in

the means of fire impression in this direction helps, this is a classic, of course it is better to pass in the other direction where the enemy weak, but a wolf strengthens always where we need to advance, where we need to be successful, he leaves weak places where the secondary direction, and there it is easy for our troops to advance, why did this happen, there were not enough forces and means that were transferred to us by our partners, for in order to fully reduce the combat. the potential of the enemy force entrenched there. more means of fire damage, missiles, shells,

air defense systems to close the sky, aviation were needed in order to create appropriate conditions so that it would be much easier to attack there than it was. was there no point in waiting? f16, well, in military affairs there is such an understanding as objective reality, and it is necessary to take these actions in a timely manner. we could have waited another year, the enemy would have strengthened or increased his efforts there, because we know that the enemy does not mobilize, but... he motivates his citizens with money to join the ranks of the armed forces, russian federation, and then the enemy would

simply be more numerous, more defensive lines and all that more, so those who made these decisions, they took into account time, objective reality, took into account their capabilities and... and planned in such a way as to do it on time, as it turned out, this is another assessment, say, the commander who failed the operation and lost many subordinates, i will be responsible for this, if the claims made against him objectively depended, or were. were dependent on the decisions he made, then yes, of course, and yes, if the commander is located and he has taken

all measures, but the enemy has concentrated such the number of military forces, that with the available number of personnel , he cannot carry out a combat mission with military equipment, so why should he be attracted? to responsibility, if the loss, if the losses depended and were dependent on the decisions made, yes , of course, this works today in our army, yes, of course, law enforcement agencies of our state work in our country, they constantly carry out investigative actions regarding those or other actions, including military leaders. serhii ivanovych, i am interested in your opinion on whether ukrainians should expect any counteroffensive

by our forces in the near future? yes, yes, well, of course, the military leadership understands that a war cannot be won by defense alone, so the appropriate forces, namely the reserves, are always being prepared, any military leader for... prepares reserves, additional forces and means, which will be used later. i emphasize once again that in order to advance, it is necessary to stop the enemy, to force him to exhaust his reserves, as was done during such a victorious and very emotional operation in kharkiv, when everyone was in in a high mood, he simply... exhausted his reserves, he removed all forces and means from the right flank, and there remained separate units of the so-called ldnr and units

of the russian guard, and there were still others. divisions of the armed forces of the russian federation, but the number of which was small, and the third - to create an advantage, therefore, before advancing, we must stop the enemy, we must force him to exhaust his reserves in one or another direction and create an advantage in forces and means. recently, the dictator of the russian federation, putin, announced an increase in the size of the army, seems like 150,000 doesn't it...doesn't that mean he's running out of reserves? the russian federation has a considerable mobilization resource, in general, according to calculations, so that we understand, the armed forces of the russian federation can continue to conduct aggression against ukraine for years. but all the same, the russian federation is facing problems, including the problem of recruiting for military

service. by the act of those citizens who go to the ranks of the armed forces of the russian federation, they give the leadership of the russian federation, both regional and state as a whole, significant financial motivation in order for these occupiers to join the ranks of their army, but all on a voluntary basis. under different sauces, what they do there is all the same, it is unlimited, when, someday, the time will come when they will be forced to use the next mobilization, therefore the increase of the armed forces of the russian federation does not bring anything good for us, for ukraine, but how do they will cope with this task, we will see, we should always strive

to ... in the armed forces of the russian federation successful, and they always lost, so i wish them to fail. how do you assess the situation at the front now? well, the situation in the immediate eastern direction is such that the armed forces of the russian federation are constantly advancing in all directions, and in these directions. where they see that they can be successful, they are developing their success, directly they are now conducting offensive actions in the kupinsky direction, they are approaching the water obstacle like ticks with ticks, there is a small advance of the armed forces of the russian federation there, and there is also their intentions to sharpen on... the grouping is in

the kurakhiv direction, where from the direction of the miner they will descend and close the encirclement ring, and accordingly the situation in the uglyadar area. i emphasize once again that the enemy, constantly attacking, in this way, as if carrying out reconnaissance by combat, is looking for places where success can be achieved, where their offensive advance can be. and so he carries out such actions with such tactics. small tank columns and infantry are used everywhere in the center, all this happens. the enemy now has a threat in the kurakhiv direction, in the ughledar direction, there are threatening his actions in the kupinsky direction. in order to stop the enemy, it is necessary, through...

i emphasize, to beat the enemy, reducing his offensive potential, with all the types of armed military equipment that are in the service of our brigades that carry out tasks in the east, this is artillery, this is, of course, unmanned aerial vehicles devices, these are anti-tank missile complexes of various types, with different ranges, these are anti-tank grenade launchers. this is the aviation that the enemy respects us with, but all the same we have it, and it is applied, it is necessary to beat, reduce its combat potential, it is necessary to make decisions in each of the directions, and it is necessary to win, in your professional opinion, what is next? well, that's how i understand it, and our viewers probably do.

will agree with me that now we are more...