It would be funny if it were not so sad. A series of photographs, depicting a Ukrainian army general and a horse, appeared on Facebook and provoked a lively discussion lately. The whole affair occurred at the recent Victory Day parade in Kharkiv. The general was first seen mounting the horse, with great difficulty and assisted by six men, and then proudly riding it during the parade itself. It looks like either the horse had not been prepared correctly for the day (they are not to be fed before any planned solemn events), or the elite soldier was too heavy for his mount, but, begging the reader’s pardon, the beast emptied its bowels during the parade. The photographer, Yevhen Shestakov, remarked somewhat rudely, but accurately and humorously: “According to the unofficial military codes of Russian and Ukrainian armies, every general officer should be ‘able to break chairs with his ass on the first try.’ Uniquely among the world’s armies, our generals train as martial sumoists.”
Of course, one could just laugh at this story and forget it, as most Facebook viewers, indeed, did, but still… The story is very revealing. Moreover, it discredits the Ukrainian army. What has happened to physical training of our military? Is it only for rank-and-file soldiers, so that as soon as one has reached high command and got, say, general’s stars, being in good shape does not matter anymore?
“We have no written standards of physical training for high-rank soldiers,” director of military programs at the Razumkov Center Mykola Sunhurovsky tells The Day. “There are common physical training requirements for all ranks, but Ukrainian soldiers do not meet them either. Once upon the time, in the mid-1990s, there was a tendency to do something like, figuratively speaking, forcing all the generals to make pull-ups, and so testing both their physical fitness and fitness for command. Similar tendencies appeared before, back in the Soviet era, but all these were short-lived campaigns only. The Soviet army never placed permanent physical training requirements on its top ranks, and its Ukrainian successor has seen no improvement.”
Why is it so? “Our entire military policy is similarly flawed,” Sunhurovsky continues, “because there is no system to it. Otherwise, we would see certain requirements met when selecting and appointing ranking personnel, and the much-discussed commanding officers would have to meet differing requirement combinations depending on their command level. The military obviously needs regulations on personnel training and sustaining their readiness for all ranks, and moreover, it should be able to monitor compliance with these regulations and punish non-compliance. Of course, stories such as one of the mounted general discredit the Ukrainian army.”
For comparison, we can turn to Western nations’ generals who always look fit and slim, their age and rank notwithstanding. What standards do they have? “Every military unit has a dedicated serviceperson who organizes physical training and checks soldiers’ physical readiness,” the Lithuanian Chief of Defence Staff’s spokesman Captain Skomantas Pavilionis tells The Day [let us recall that Lithuania is a NATO member country. – Ed.]. “All officers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, regardless of rank or command, have to meet the same requirements as enlisted men. They are really strict. The professional Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Arvydas Pocius, undergoes physical training test along with the rest of soldiers twice a year. All our commanding officers, starting with generals and colonels, have to inspire lower ranks by their own example, and the commander-in-chief has a principled stance on physical fitness as part of this requirement. Therefore, he undergoes the combat readiness test twice a year, including shooting, grenade-throwing and quick march. All officers do it together with enlisted men, not in some separate groups. All soldiers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, even if they are stationed abroad, have to undergo physical fitness test. There is no excuse for anybody to shirk it.”
The Lithuanians provide a good example for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ commanders. Our own history is in no way worse as an example, and it would be great to have an army worthy of its predecessors. The Cossack host’s strength, skill, and courage are legendary, as is, by the way, the Cossacks’ special relationship with their war mounts.
