Ukraine’s General Staff, together with the President’s Office, is drafting options for a new system to allocate personnel, proposals that will be presented to President Volodymyr Zelensky at the next meeting of the Staff. Deputy head of the President’s Office Pavlo Palisa said the military has long pushed for these changes, with the main goal to end what he called “the chaos of ad‑hoc decisions.”
Ukraine is preparing new principles for assigning troops across combat brigades. Palisa said he discussed the plan with Chief of the General Staff Andriy Hnatov.
“Our shared goal is simple and clear: every combat brigade should receive a predictable number of recruits. A soldier should report directly to the unit where he will serve, and from day one know: this is my unit, this is my commander, this is my team. This is where I train and build cohesion — and with these people I will go on missions,” he said.
Palisa noted that many brigades already have the capacity to train new recruits — including instructors and infrastructure - but will need reinforcement to accept people on time and prepare them properly. Where such training capacity doesn’t yet exist, it will be created.
“This is not easy work, but in my view there is no alternative if we want a soldier trained for the specific equipment, tactics and conditions of his brigade. That does not mean training centers should disappear,” Palisa emphasized.
He confirmed a transition period lies ahead. Still, he said, the decision is long overdue and commanders have been raising it constantly.
“In recent weeks I’ve had many conversations with brigade and corps commanders. They’re also offering their own proposals for how to do this. Everyone wants the same thing: a fair, clear and predictable distribution system that allows planning for training and rotations — instead of living in the chaos of ad‑hoc decisions,” Palisa said.
He added that he agreed with Hnatov to hold a joint meeting within a week to align figures, mechanisms and implementation stages. Options will be submitted to the president at the next Staff meeting. The leadership’s priority, he said, is ensuring the decision genuinely helps service members and recruits.
