Ukrainian Filmmaker, Military Commander Oleh Sentsov Highlights Military Shortcomings

Oleh Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker turned Russian political prisoner, turned military commander, identified shortcomings within the Ukrainian military that led to incohesive operations, and he said post-operation performance reviews are needed, regardless of their successes.

“The army is a very archaic, vertically built structure. It cannot be reformed from within. The army has always been more conservative than any other state institution,” Sentsov told BBC Ukraine in an interview published Thursday, July 25.

Certain mentalities from the Soviet era, such as only reporting good news to the headquarters, persist in certain parts of the Ukrainian military despite some modern developments such as drone usage, Sentsov said.

“No one wants to break bad news upstairs. ‘The situation is difficult, but under control’ – it has already become a meme.”

“We do not have an after-action review procedure, that is, an analysis of errors after an operation at the platoon, company, [and] battalion level. You are expected to either complete the task and then you are good, or you are not. But war cannot always have a positive result. It is necessary to understand why the result is negative,” he said.

Sentsov said there have been no reviews after the military failed to reach the objectives of the 2023 summer counteroffensive.

“If we go to NATO, we have to use their protocols,” he said.

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NATO weapons and standards

Seeing that his unit was supposed to be one of Ukraine’s newer models to follow the NATO standard, BBC Ukraine asked Sentsov if the efforts were successful, to which he said no.

He praised the effectiveness of NATO weapons – the Bradley fighting vehicles in particular, but he said the standards are not implemented properly within the command structure – such as the failed implementation of NATO’s Troop Leading Procedures (TLP), its battle planning procedure for commanders adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

“There are small units where such standards are implemented. There are separate brigades where the commander focuses a lot on this,” he said.

“There are units that do ‘double bookkeeping,’ that is, they work according to the NATO TLP. And upstairs they report, as required by our charter,” Sentsov said.

“So we will never join NATO.”

Sentsov’s personal experience of the 2023 counteroffensive

Sentsov elaborated on issues in the Ukrainian military based on his personal experience as a commander in Ukraine’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which took part in the 2023 counteroffensive.

“We were the main breakthrough brigade that was involved in the direction of the main strike. We had to punch a hole in the Russian defense around Robotyne, as it turned out later. We were not told about this at first. We just knew that we had a difficult task, we were ready to do it. But many nuances of the operation were incomplete.”

“When a month later, instead of our ninth corps, the tenth went, it made the same mistakes. No one shared the experience that was already there,” he said.

The incohesive structure, especially when battlefield situations are not reported accurately to headquarters, can lead to confusion and unnecessary losses.

“For example, Ukrainian forces may lose some position, and the top reports that they are still holding it. You say that the enemy is already there, that they are shooting at us, but you hear that it was a mix-up, that the Ukrainian military remains there.

“Then it turns out that the position is still lost. I have faced this several times. This is a systemic problem and one of the main ones for us,” he added.

Sentsov said this was why Russia was able to advance in the Kharkiv region during its May offensive this year.

“Why did the breakthrough happen in the Kharkiv region? Because before that they reported that everything was fine. We live in a constant lie. It needs to end because it has consequences,” he said.

Reforms take time

He praised Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky as a competent leader, though he saw “no big difference” between Syrsky and his predecessor Valery Zaluzhny, and that reforms, even if there’s one, are unlikely to reach the grassroots of the institutions in a short time.

“But problems have already accumulated in the system: people are exhausted, there is a lack of equipment and ammunition. A resource was spent on the counterattack, which is now lacking.

“And you can see that over the past six months, the Russian army has been squeezing us out little by little. They feel that we may not be as strong now as we were a year ago,” Sentsov said.

Sentsov’s new wartime documentary

As a filmmaker – who was known for his arrest in 2014 in occupied Crimea by Russian authorities for his pro-Ukrainian stance – he recently screened his documentary called “Real,” which documented realities on the front line.

While some channels sought to portray the heroic side of war, Sentsov said he wanted to portray the reality to set the right expectations.

“We showed the maximum truth about the war, in particular, to those people who will go to serve in it, so that they understand what awaits them…However, when they get into the first difficult situation, they begin to ‘float’ psychologically, because they were not ready for it,” he said.

Further into the interview, Sentsov also said that Russian troops are not as underprepared as the media tends to portray at times.

“Do not think that the enemy is weak, timid or unprepared. This is an overestimation of one’s own strengths and an underestimation of the other side.”

“This happened during the counterattack. I personally had cases when I was assured from above that everything is fine in a certain direction and there is no enemy. But in reality, everything was completely different. As a result, we lost people, equipment, ammunition – but the situation only worsened,” he said.

‘Everyone is tired of war … But this is exactly what Putin wants’

Sentsov said he initially struggled with the drastic changes between the front line and relatively more peaceful cities in Ukraine, though he is now accustomed to it.

“Guys who walked around the city and didn’t fight were annoying. But you don’t know anything about them. Maybe they just came from a nearby position on vacation. It happened to me too. You, in general, come to terms with a lot,” he said.

He said war fatigue is becoming a thing in Ukraine, but that’s exactly what Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants.

“Everyone is tired of war. Soldiers get tired, especially psychologically. Women and children in the rear are getting tired. The rear has its troubles, loads, shelling. You can die in the center of Kyiv from a rocket.”

“But this is exactly what Putin wants: for us to get tired, for us to quarrel, to start looking for extremes, to shake up the situation. Then we will lose the state, the nation and scatter around the world, and Russia will rule here. I don't want that,” he said.