As Ukraine seeks to bring its military up to NATO standards by 2020, a new command hierarchy is to be introduced, giving a stronger role to non-commissioned officers in the army’s everyday duties.
An extensive package of amendments to Ukrainian military manuals presented in the Verkhovna Rada by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on Feb. 5 foresees the creation of a number of new sergeant ranks in each brigade, battalion, company, and platoon, in many ways similar to the way Western militaries organize their forces.
According to the explanatory note, the new enhanced non-commissioned officer corps in Ukraine’s combat formations will help ensure there is better training and education for soldiers.
Groysman’s draft bill No.7549, which is now being revised in the Rada’s committees prior to its first reading in parliament, will make numerous changes to the current army regulations, which have been in effect since late March 1999 and are mainly based on old Soviet military practice.
According to Soviet army traditions, all duties such as command, maintenance, or management within combat units must be carried out by commissioned officers and their numerous deputies.
In contrast, under the Western system of hierarchy, the army is built around a robust core of professional non-commissioned officers, particularly sergeants, whose primary duty is to take care of every soldier on a daily basis, ensure discipline, order, morale, training, and the maintenance for troops.
Sergeants – normally highly experienced and long-serving servicemen – also advise commanders in taking decisions; for instance, they give recommendations regarding which soldiers should be sent for advanced training and qualify for promotion.
The Western-style system will soon be launched in the Ukrainian Armed Forces via newly updated service manuals.
According to the draft bill, each army brigade will have a sergeant major, along with a brigade commander, who will be a high-ranking officer.
“The sergeant major is the brigade commander’s right hand,” Oleksandr Kosynskiy, the Armed Forces Command Senior Enlisted Leader, told the Kyiv Post on Feb. 9. “He advises his top commander and is responsible for keeping all personnel in all units totally capable of complying with the commander’s orders. He is a leader for all non-commissioned officers in the brigade.”
Down the ranks, in each battalion, company, and platoon, sergeants will be put in charge of management, personnel issues, and enforcing discipline and compliance with standard military dress code among the soldiers within their units.
According to one of the draft bill’s articles, all of a brigade’s non-commissioned officers will be united into a Sergeant Council chaired by the unit’s sergeant major.
Also, the new army regulations foresee Ukraine’s Minister of Defense being a civilian, as does another upcoming Ukraine’s national security bill, the draft version of which stipulates that the country’s defense minister and his deputies are to be civilians from Jan. 1, 2019.
Apart from bringing Ukraine’s military service manuals closer to NATO standards, the bill, surprisingly, proposes that the Ukrainian nationalist motto “Glory to Ukraine – Glory to Heroes!” is to be the new standard greeting for servicemen.
“Following a greeting “Glory to Ukraine!” by a senior officer, all servicemen answer “Glory to the Heroes!”,” the draft bill says. “If a senior officer bids farewell to troops, the servicemen respond by saying “Glory to the Heroes!”
