Sergeant Major of Ukrainian Army brigade accused of self-promotion based on others' blood, brigade commander urges parties to come to terms

The 47th "Magura" Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reacted to comments made by Sergeant Major Valerii Markus, who asked to be demoted because of an ongoing disagreement with the brigade’s commanders.

Source: Oleksandr Sak, commander of the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on Telegram; Rustam Mustafaiev, Sergeant Major of the 47th Brigade’s UAV strike company, on Facebook

Quote from Sak: "Privates, sergeants and officers of the brigade continue to carry out their combat tasks today – seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

In these difficult days, as Commander of the 47th Brigade, I call on everyone to put aside conflicts, resentment and disputes – and increase our efforts in the joint struggle. Let problems unite us ahead of fierce battles! As fingers bend into a single fist to strike, so we must unite."

Details: Rustam Mustafaiev, Sergeant Major of the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade’s UAV strike company, criticised Markus for "trying to promote himself on the back of other people's blood and other people's work", and also refuted a number of his criticisms about the command of the brigade.

In particular, Mustafaiev insisted that he and his sergeants had not encountered "systematic humiliation from the sergeant corps of the brigade" as Markus has claimed. Mustafaiev said that on the contrary, the command often summons him to the headquarters to interact and coordinate the actions of the unit, and all officers of the higher command are in direct contact with him to "create the most favourable conditions for the work of the unit".

He also called Markus's claim that "the brigade command fails to understand the importance of soldiers’ morale if they are to do their jobs well" complete nonsense.

Quote: "Why are we talking about morale when Markus takes part in one assault, films the result of other people's work, and then posts a bunch of videos to promote himself based on the blood of his brothers-in-arms? He was the one who was supposed to be training the brigade for combat and raising morale, but he has completely failed at that."

More details: Mustafaiev also refuted Markus's accusations about the "incompetence of the brigade’s senior officer corps", noting that he personally has taken part in more operations with these officers "than there are posts in Markus's blogs".

Mustafaiev also considers the claim that "the brigade command lacks the will to protect the interests of the military unit before the higher command" to be untrue.

He concluded that the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade fulfils its tasks successfully, despite a number of problematic issues.

Background: 

• On 11 July, Valerii Markus, Sergeant Major of the 47th "Magura" Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said he had asked to be demoted because he disagreed with the actions of the brigade’s command.
• On 28 June, Valerii Markus described a day of assaults and a night spent with the bodies of Russian invaders, only for Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi to leave a comment reprimanding him for taking off his body armour.
• On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Markus to discuss the reform of the sergeant corps.
• The 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is involved in operations in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

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