Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov visit an artillery training centre, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Ukraine November 3, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's top general on Monday issued his strongest criticism to date of a previous presidential decision to fire regional military draft office chiefs, Interfax Ukraine reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy fired all of Ukraine's regional military recruitment heads in August in a corruption crackdown.
He said at the time a state investigation into centres across Ukraine had exposed abuses by officials ranging from illegal enrichment to transporting draft-eligible men across the border despite a wartime ban on them leaving the country.
Asked by reporters on the sidelines of an event on Monday about whether the decision affected mobilisation levels, Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi bemoaned the recruitment chiefs' sacking.
"These were professionals, they knew how to do this, and they are gone," Interfax Ukraine cited him as saying.
Zaluzhnyi's frank assessment of battlefield realities in a November essay published in The Economist are in stark contrast to the unwavering optimism of Zelenskiy's public speeches.
Ukrainska Pravda, a major Ukrainian media outlet, recently reported of a long history of growing tensions between the two men, citing several anonymous officials.
Asked by reporters to comment on the Defence Ministry's recent plan to boost military recruitment, Zaluzhnyi said the old system should be brought back.
"It is still a little early to evaluate recruiting. As for mobilization issues, it is not necessary to strengthen it, but to return it to those boundaries (and) to those frameworks that worked before," Interfax Ukraine quoted him as saying.
Ukraine, which initially saw tens of thousands of eager volunteers queue up to fight off Russia's invasion, is now trying to conscript more men to replace those currently at the front.
Angry social media posts have abounded in recent weeks purporting to show army recruiters turning up at gyms and resorts to hand out draft notices.
Zaluzhnyi's remarks come a day after it was publicly revealed that an information gathering device had been found in an office that he had been due to move into, with the domestic security service launching an investigation.
(Reporting by Max Hunder, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
