'Our defense is falling apart' — Prominent Ukrainian activist criticizes military, political leadership
Prominent Ukrainian activist and volunteer Serhii Sternenko criticized his country's military and political leadership on Nov. 17, warning that "we are headed toward a disaster of strategic magnitude, which could lead to the loss of statehood."
In an X post accompanied by screenshots of a critical Facebook post by a Ukrainian journalist, Sternenko stressed that remaining silent about the issues with Ukraine's military and political approach to the country's defense "is a crime."
"Our defense is falling apart," Sternenko, who works closely with various military units to supply their immediate needs, such as drones, said. "Under a stunning silence about it."
Sternenko's warning comes as Russian troops pierce through Ukrainian defenses on multiple hot spot sectors of the war, including Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk Oblast and near the town of Huliaipole in southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
This year alone, Russia has been able to suddenly open new fronts in areas that were once far from the fighting, such as in Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy oblasts, raising concerns about Ukraine's ability to prepare and build fortifications — and learn from its repeating mistakes.
Without significant changes in both the military and political leadership, the possibility of Russian tanks hypothetically reaching cities such as Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia is "only a matter of time," Sternenko warned.
Dnipro is a major logistics hub for the Ukrainian army located over 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) from the fighting, whereas Zaporizhzhia is only about 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) away.
Sternenko didn't elaborate on the issues he's referring to or suggest solutions for the military or political leadership. There was no immediate reaction from either of the leaderships. The Kyiv Independent reached out to Sternenko but was declined an immediate comment.
Sternenko attached screenshots from well-known Ukrainian war reporter Anna Kaliuzhna's Facebook post, in which she criticized the Ukrainian military leadership's allocation of limited manpower resources, especially the cost of "scaling up assault troops at the expense of bleeding the brigades dry."
