The commander of the Ukrainian army, Mr. Mikhail Drapaty, has officially submitted his resignation after accepting responsibility for the deaths of many soldiers in consecutive airstrikes on a military training center.
At least 12 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 60 others were injured in the Russian attack on June 1. Kiev has not released a specific location, but sources say the incident could have occurred near the Novomoskovsky military training area in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that it had launched an attack on the camp area at the Novomoskovsky training ground, targeting the 158th Special Forces Motor Brigade and the 33rd Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In a statement on social media on May 31, Mr. Drapaty wrote: I have decided to resign from the position of Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force. This is a conscious step, starting from my personal responsibility for the tragedy at training ground No. 239, where our soldiers died.
He emphasized that if there is no lesson learned, no change in attitude towards service obligations, no mistake is admitted, the consequences will be inevitable. Drapaty also said he had opened an investigation into the circumstances leading to the incident at the training ground.
The Russian Defense Ministry had previously announced in March that it had attacked the area with Iskander-M missiles, killing about 150 Ukrainian soldiers and 30 foreign military training personnel. After the incident, Mr. Drapaty harshly criticized the outdated procedures and the situation of chaos within the Ukrainian army.
Corruption has long been a burning issue in the Ukrainian defense industry, affecting all fields from ammunition supply, food to defense construction coast guard. Just last month, the Security Service of Ukraine arrested a number of military officials involved in the corruption ring, supplying the Kiev army with about 120,000 poor quality mortar shells.
