If not for Russia’s numbers, we would have won long ago: Airborne Forces commander on the superiority of the Armed Forces, service and values

Brigadier General and Commander of the Air Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ihor Skybyuk gave an interview to Volodymyr Runets, a special correspondent and international commentator for ICTV. He spoke about the Air Assault Forces, his service in the army and how the nature of combat operations has changed in recent years.

Reference. Ihor Skybyuk was born in Kherson region, a graduate of the Odesa Institute of Land Forces and later the National Defence University of Ukraine.

He began his officer’s service in 1998 in the 6th separate airmobile brigade of the Operational Command West, which was later reorganised into the 80th separate airmobile regiment and the 80th separate air assault Galician brigade. He went through all the stages of his military career.

He performed assigned tasks as part of Ukrainian peacekeeping contingents in Kosovo and Iraq.

Participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation and the Joint Forces Operation in eastern Ukraine. Since October 2018, he has been the Chief of Staff – Deputy Commander of the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade.

In November 2021, Ihor Skybyuk became the commander of the Galician Air Assault Brigade, where he faced the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.

It was under his direct leadership that the 80th separate airborne assault Galician Brigade conducted successful combat operations during the defence of the Southern direction and the city of Voznesensk, fought fierce battles in the areas of Bilohorivka, Sloviansk, Lysychansk, Spirne, Bakhmut, and took part in the Slobozhansky counter-offensive.

On 14 October 2022, Ihor Skybyuk was awarded the highest state award – the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Golden Star – for personal courage and heroism in defence of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

At the end of 2022, Ihor Skybyuk was appointed Chief of Staff – Deputy Commander of the Airborne Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and on 11 February 2024, he was appointed Commander of the Airborne Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

He is a Knight of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, II and III degrees, and was awarded personalised firearms.

Brigadier General Ihor Anatoliiovych Skybyuk has devoted his entire life to the development and formation of the Ukrainian paratroopers, and to the enhancement of the heroic and glorious traditions of this particular branch of the armed forces.

Service in the Airborne Forces

– Paratroopers have always been associated with prestige. If anyone wanted to serve in the army, it was in these troops. How do you manage to maintain this prestige today – new challenges, new times?

– We don’t need to prove anything. We have already gained the authority and prestige of the troops for decades to come. We have shown our identity as paratroopers, made many significant contributions to the victory and successful operations.

– Why should people join the Airborne Forces?

– We are highly professional assault troops. You will not be bored here, you will be in the thick of things, prepared in the best possible way, you will be under the best and most effective command. You will be in professional and cohesive teams, where each brigade, company and battalion is like a family. We keep common sense in the forefront. We are open to experiments, in particular in the Air Assault Forces. We are asking for experiments conducted by the General Staff and the Ministry of Defence.

We need to work in a way that makes it convenient for military units to perform their tasks. They will not know how competent I am until they see how caring I am. The Ukrainian army is not paper, not rudimentary, it is a modern, successful army with great achievements and good traditions.

Usually, when wars end, or at some stage of them, they conduct research and then try to implement this experience. This war is not like that.

– You say that the main thing in your position now is to make people feel cared for. How should it be manifested?

– I am honoured when I greet and shake hands with my soldiers. In terms of caring, as a commander, I have to meet the necessary resource needs of my military units, I have to address the training of personnel and their needs. I have a requirement that if a soldier addresses me, he should always get an answer to his question.

– Those soldiers who go abroad to study are mostly newcomers or people with combat experience. What can they learn there?

– It can be both. There are specialised courses for certain military professions and competences, which are attended by experienced officers and sergeants who study specific weapons or certain competences.

And there are a large number of soldiers who have just been drafted and are undergoing basic training, learning basic military skills. In my opinion, training abroad is necessary. It instils certain values in these armies.

The war and how the nature of combat has changed

– There is a lot of scepticism about the frontline. The words ‘defeat’, ‘despondency’, ‘decline’ and ‘deadlock’ are often flashed in the media. How right are the voices from the outside about what is happening in Ukraine now?

– As a military professional, I have my own analysis and some forecasting. But this is a rather complicated war, again, with inequality of forces. The support of our partners, the consistency of this support, and the speed of this support are important.

– Are there enough resources or is there a shortage?

– There is a shortage, and there is a need to distribute them in the most efficient way.

– What resources are currently lacking the most?

– These are means of combat destruction and high-tech weapons to ensure that we are sufficiently protected and effective on the battlefield. But we have a war plan, we have campaign plans, we have an understanding of what we are doing. In understanding what we are doing, we are superior to the enemy, superior in leadership effectiveness. If the enemy’s numbers were not so disproportionate to ours, it would have been over long ago. The enemy’s resources are simply too great.

– Were the military worried about the swings in the US Congress’ approval of military aid to Ukraine?

– The outcome is important, and this whole political situation and discussion does not need to be delved into.

– Experts say that the nature of war has changed. Would you agree with this thesis? If so, how did the parties start fighting differently?

– Yes, it has changed in general as the nature of wars of a certain generation. And it has changed several times within it. Different kinds of technologies are important now. I think that this war will end with certain robotic systems operating on the battlefield. Undoubtedly, these are the capabilities of drones of various types, the capabilities of reconnaissance and electronic warfare. Now there is a great electronic warfare of intelligence assets, which is sometimes more fierce than a close assault battle or a fight for artillery firepower.

Certain tactical techniques and methods are completely new, contrary to what we were preparing for. When the masses were deciding, now, in addition to high technology, the success, training, and ability of an assault group soldier to fulfil his tactical task and have an advantage over the enemy always in any conditions are decisive.

– Is it right to say that war has become more intellectual?

– Absolutely. The effectiveness of the work of the headquarters, where I think we always outperform the enemy, meaning we always understand what is happening on the battlefield and have options for what to do. There is also the training and professionalism of the people who apply this and manage operations. Sometimes brute force does not solve anything.

Photo: Facebook / 110th separate mechanised brigade named after Major General Marko Bezruchko

About myself, people and values

– What would you like to tell us about yourself?

– I’m going to try to make a joke – I have the wrong year of birth on Wikipedia and I have a sense of humour.

– What is your highest value in life and work?

– A person is an integral personality. In my service, I value professionalism, the ability to develop, possession of basic military competencies and dedication the most. Our profession is such that we cannot deliver average results, let alone poor ones. We must always work to the best of our ability.

– It’s a life of adrenaline. How hard is it to come home and let it go?

– A sense of humour helps with this. It’s not hard for me personally.

– Do you manage to separate your professional and personal life?

– Yes and no. When my family was critical that I didn’t spend enough time with them when I was in lower positions, I told them I was saving the world, and they forgave me.

– You have a lot of officers under your command, some experienced, some young, who have no combat experience. What advice would you give them in their professional and personal lives, and how to combine them?

– I have a number of rules – you can always do more. They should always look for opportunities to do more and not give up. Even in the most difficult situation, there are always ways to turn it around, to stabilise it. It’s all about common sense. I call this my winning formula. The personnel must trust the commander. And there must be trust in the task. Then everything will work out and it will be quite simple.

Friends

– Let’s talk about friends – we all have them.

– If you take an average friend of mine, this is a colonel of the Air Assault Troops, whom I have known for decades. I have several friends like that, I have several close friends who are sergeants, with whom I communicate on an equal footing. We do not distinguish between generals and sergeants, they are great guys and very close to me.

– The Friends of the Airborne Forces project is now being launched, what can you tell us about it?

– The idea has two sides. It is to use the media to present more widely the achievements, history, our brigades, individual stories of deeds, individual professions, competencies of the heroic guys and girls who perform the tasks and give feedback, to show how important and difficult our service is, how much we do our best to fulfil the tasks assigned to us. And I think this is important for the families who are proud, who want to see their loved ones, who are looking for news of them.

Each brigade is a combat family, and relatives and friends also have a community. This is a very broad category, primarily families and close friends of the servicemen who think about them every day, pray, worry, and whose thoughts are about their loved ones serving in the assault troops and performing missions.

I would like to single out as Friends of the Air Assault Forces the communities of the cities and towns where our military units are based, who provide both moral and material support. In the first year of the war, we survived thanks to the help of these communities. Friends are their mayors, heads of administration, and the community of these cities. Friends are community volunteers, NGOs that help us with extremely important needs and tasks.

These are some well-known personalities who contribute to our needs and support us. This is a very wide and important circle of people whom I, as the commander, would like to thank.

Home front, victory and plans after the war

– What would you say to the people in the home front about how important they are to the army?

– We understand that the economy and people’s everyday life must work. We are fighting at the front so that everything will be fine in the rear, where our loved ones are. I am happy when I see peaceful life, some manifestations, of course, they should not be cynical. Any provocative measures are unacceptable.

– What should Ukraine look like after the victory?

– It’s a bright picture, I want everything to be honest, I want gratitude to the veterans of this war, I want us to be modern and European. I want Ukraine to be happy.

– What will victory look like for you personally?

– I frankly saw victory during the Kharkiv operation. I would like to experience those feelings again. This is when the enemy is defeated, running in all directions, when dozens of their vehicles are destroyed, when you capture dozens of vehicles, when there are dozens of prisoners, demoralised, who only want to save their own skin.

This is the happiness of the people who meet you. This is when you see these tricolour rags lying around and you wipe your feet on them.

– Before this war started, we could safely say that the goal of the Ukrainian army inside the country was for Ukraine to become a NATO member. Is it still a goal now, can Ukraine achieve it?

– I think so. NATO is a community of allies, and they know how to value allies. I think that Ukraine, both now and after the victory, for many political and moral reasons, should lead to a positive result. And our Armed Forces are quite professional, we are on par with NATO in many respects, in some respects we are superior. I don’t see any problems.

– I want us to start visualising our dreams. Let’s imagine that we have won, what will you do immediately afterwards?

– As a military commander, I will have a lot of military affairs to do. It is such an important stage to put everything in order. So some celebrations will have to be postponed. I would like to visualise some human desires – the joy of getting together with friends, thanking them, rejoicing. To gather your company commanders, cook a pot of borscht, sit with them, talk, and thank them.

Photo: video screenshot