The Ukrainian Air Force has created a commission to investigate whether key personnel are being transferred to the front lines amid a shortage of troops defending the east. The move comes after a major controversy erupted after one unit claimed that its MiG-29 Fulcrum maintainers were sent to the infantry, drastically affecting its ability to launch sorties. It was the latest of several such allegations, which Ukrainian officials have denied.
“The commission is working to prevent the transfer of deficient specialties of military personnel, which could significantly impact the combat ability of Air Force units,” spokesman Col. Yuri Ignat stated on Facebook Thursday.
At issue are troops maintaining aircraft and operating and maintaining anti-aircraft systems, radio-technical troops, mobile fire groups, and military personnel who have been trained abroad on Western weapons. Losing them to the infantry could have a cascading effect on the ability to launch strikes with its limited aviation assets or defend against them from the air and ground.
“Appropriate decisions have been made to prevent the transfer of military personnel of deficient specialties to other types and types of the Armed Forces,” Ignat explained. “Currently, the Air Force Commission is checking whether there [are any violations]. If such cases are identified, decisions will be made to rectify them.”
Ignat’s announcement included several phone numbers for people to call with tips.
“It’s not the first year that the Air Force soldiers are strengthening brigades of other kinds and types of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the hottest fronts of the front, side by side with the brothers take part in fierce battles, within their capabilities to destroy the enemy with all available weapons, both in the stationary units of the Air Force, and in other units,” the Air Force spokesman added.
Ignat’s statement follows a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday for the Air Force to ensure that no key personnel are being sent to fight as infantry, regardless of mounting losses in personnel and territory.
“Today, there was a lot of information, outrage and discussion – regarding the transfers,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “I have instructed to clarify everything for the public and to ensure that the number of specialists needed by the Air Force to carry out combat missions – for our aviation, air defense, and mobile fire groups – is not reduced.”
The Ukrainian president was reacting to claims made earlier that day by a sergeant from the Carpathian 114th Air Force Brigade that hundreds of Fulcrum maintainers were given orders to head to the front lines, according to the Ukrainian Galka news outlet.
The unit received a telegram about the transfer of almost all its technicians to the infantry, meaning there would be few left to service the aircraft, Sgt. Vitaliy ‘Bart’ Gorzhevskyi claimed in a video message. Previously, 250 people were taken from the brigade, with another 218 slated for transfer, he noted. The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims.
“We, aviation technical personnel, have been fulfilling our mission for over 10 years, servicing MiG-29 fighters,” Gorzhevskyi stated. “Since 2014, we have been working in the most difficult conditions, providing combat sorties and maintaining our aviation in service. We have mastered new types of aircraft provided by Western partners, and are training a new generation of pilots. Without technical personnel, aviation will not be able to function. We worked alongside legendary pilots such as Juice, Karaya, Smereka, and each of us firmly believes in our mission and loyalty to the Motherland.”
One of those pilots, Vadym “Karaya” Voroshylov, echoed Gorzhevskyi’s concerns.
“Personally, I and every pilot of the Air Force owe them for the constant combat readiness and serviceability of aircraft,” he said in an Instagram post. “Are we ready to simply give them up? No, because these are very narrowly focused specialists who studied at higher military educational institutions for 5 years, and gained professional experience in training aircraft in combat brigades and in combat conditions.”
“I witnessed many cases when the airfield was under enemy fire, and the engineering staff moved aviation equipment to shelter after takeoff, or extracted pilots from the cockpit of burning aircraft,” he added. “Unfortunately, some of them gave their lives saving aviation equipment that was on the ground in such cases.”
The bottom line, said Voroshylov, is that transferring ground crews “will lead to problems with the maintenance and servicing of aircraft – as a result, we will have a decrease in the combat capability of aviation brigades. Aviation is one large ecosystem, the life of which directly depends on the performance of the functional duties of each element, which is IMPOSSIBLE to replace. I want to defend my people, our aviation!”
You can see a 2023 interview he gave in the following video.
Ukrainian media outlets have reported previous transfers of key personnel from the Air Force to the infantry. Thousands of Air Force troops have been transferred this way, according to the Kyiv Independent.
“Reports indicated that since 2024, thousands of Air Force soldiers have been transferred to the Ground Forces,” the publication wrote. “The latest directive was issued on Jan. 11, when Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi issued an order to transfer over 5,000 Air Force personnel to Ground Forces units.”
A senior Air Force officer, “speaking anonymously, said transfers have now reached a ‘critical level,’ with unit staffing dropping to 50%,” the publication added.
The Ukrainian Militinaryi news outlet said it “knows that the large-scale withdrawal of personnel from the Air Force was authorized” by Syrsky.
In addition to aviation units, the transfers “also affected the anti-aircraft and radio engineering units of the [Ukrainian Air Force],” the publication added.” In particular, we are talking about the maintenance of anti-aircraft missile systems, including SAM operators trained abroad, as well as radar system operators.”
“This is already the third large-scale transfer of personnel,” Militinaryi noted. “According to officers, when this order is implemented, the staffing in some parts of the anti-aircraft missile forces will fall below 40%. According to regulatory documents, this is the level of a non-combat unit.”
The Ukrainian Air Force “already has its own infantry brigade, formed from personnel of the aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops and radio engineering troops, which has been fighting in various directions for more than a year,” Militinaryi explained. “It is known that the fighters of the infantry brigade of the [Air Force], together with units of the marines, participated in the most difficult battles on the left bank of the Kherson region in Krynki, in Zaporizhia during the offensive operation and are currently defending the country in the Vovchansk area.”
You can see how the fighting has damaged Vovchansk in the video below.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff pushed back on the transfer claims, saying Syrskyi “has prohibited the transfer of specialists in high-tech specialties and those who have been trained abroad using foreign models of weapons and military equipment.”
“The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially reports that it was not and is not planned to transfer the urgently needed specialists of the Air Force engineering and aviation service who service aircraft to infantry units,” it stated in a Telegram post. “Instead, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is increasing the number of technical and flight personnel.”
The General Staff, however, did acknowledge that “certain categories of personnel of the Air Force, as well as other branches and branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, after preliminary training in training centers, strengthen the Ground Forces, Airborne Assault Forces, etc.”
It is unclear why the Ukrainian Air Force is still investigating these transfers after the General Staff’s denial that they happened. We’ve reached out to Ignat for more details.
The controversy over these transfers highlights the precarious position Ukraine finds itself in, trying to defend the east, where Russian forces continue to slowly gain more ground, while at the same time sustaining its invasion into Russia’s Kursk region.
“The situation at the front is not easy, in many areas there is a shortage of infantrymen,” the General Staff explained. “The decision to strengthen the ground brigades on the front line at the expense of servicemen from units of other branches and branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a forced step by the military leadership to strengthen our defense.”
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com