Vadym Sukharevskyi, Ukrainian army colonel: ‘War is closer than many European countries believe’

Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, 41, is a figure in European history. For Ukraine, he is a hero: the medals he has received attest to this. But his significance transcends his country. The name of Sukharevskyi, the current deputy commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the East, appears in the annals of war not because of the current Russian invasion, which began in 2022, but because of a decision he made on April 13, 2014, in Sloviansk. This city in the Donetsk Oblast, in the Donbas region, remains under Ukrainian control today, largely thanks to him.

The war in Donbas had begun a day earlier, on April 12, 2014. Russian soldiers under the command of Colonel Igor Girkin occupied the administrative centers of Sloviansk to support the Donetsk separatists. Sukharevskyi, a lieutenant at the time, had orders not to fire, to avoid escalation. On April 13, with his men threatened by an imminent ambush, he disobeyed and ordered his soldiers to attack the Russian and separatist forces, becoming the first soldier to pull the trigger against Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. Thus began the battle for Sloviansk, the first of the Donbas war.

Twelve years later, Sloviansk remains part of a free Ukraine, although Russian troops are only around 10 miles from the town. Only 25% of Donetsk province is unoccupied; the other province in the Donbas region, Luhansk, is entirely under Russian control.

The Kremlin and Washington are demanding that Ukraine withdraw its troops from what it still holds in Donetsk as a condition for reaching a peace agreement. “What the United States is doing is prostituting itself politically,” says Sukharevskyi, referring to the close relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. “The White House is a product of Russian psychological warfare and disinformation,” adds this veteran officer in an interview with EL PAÍS.

His baptism of fire came precisely in a war instigated by the United States: the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sukharevskyi was a 19-year-old private when he joined the Ukrainian contingent assigned to the Western coalition led by Washington. In nine months, he saw nine of his comrades die.

That period, he explains, determined the decisions he would make in the future: “Right up to today.” Specifically, Sukharevskyi places the most important experience of his military career on April 6, 2004, in the battle where the coalition captured key positions in Kut, which was under the control of the fundamentalist militias of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The commander ordered them to abandon the town even though they had managed to push back the enemy.

For the now-colonel, that was a lesson in the importance of having modern commanders who understand the importance of delegating to subordinates and making decisions more quickly, not vertically but horizontally. In other words, adapting to NATO’s military theory and abandoning the rigid Soviet system.

The White House is a product of Russian psychological warfare and disinformation

“In the first phase of the invasion [2022-2024], replacing old generals and colonels who were hindering progress was good and effective, but now I think it’s a negative thing, because these changes are based on political interests and harm the army,” says Sukharevskyi, referring to the constant changes of commanders in the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.

He declined to elaborate when asked if he himself was among those affected. In 2024, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff and, more importantly, Commander of Unmanned Systems Forces — in other words, commander of Ukraine’s entire drone force. He held both positions for only a year, and though he doesn’t say so, his face betrays the pain of the decision.

Between Iraq and the war in Ukraine, “there aren’t that many political differences,” argues Sukharevskyi; above all, he says, because of the falsehoods behind them: “The Russians invaded us claiming that our government was illegitimate and a threat, and they did the same with Saddam Hussein. The main objective of both wars is territory and geopolitical gains for those who started them. And in both wars, the greatest suffering is that of civilians, Ukrainians and Iraqis,” he summarizes.

The start of the war on February 24, 2022, did not surprise Sukharevskyi. At the time, he was commander of the 35th Marine Brigade, and his troops had prepared for an invasion that Sukharevskyi’s main supporter, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, then commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, considered a foregone conclusion. His mission was to participate in the defense of the Odesa province coast: “On February 24, a member of my team asked me what was going to happen. I replied that we might have two weeks left to live, until our bullets and artillery ran out.”

On February 24, a member of my team asked me what was going to happen. I replied that we might have two weeks left to live, until our bullets and artillery ran out

Drones instead of soldiers

More than four years have passed, and Ukraine is still fighting. In the Black Sea, where Sukharevskyi began this war, the defending army has achieved one of its greatest victories: pushing back the Russian fleet with its maritime drones and securing export routes for merchant ships sailing from the ports of Odesa. It was precisely Ukraine’s early commitment to drone innovation, says Sukharevskyi, that has allowed its armed forces to continue standing up to the enemy.

“Without our current drone capabilities, we would need three to five times more soldiers,” Sukharevskyi calculates, based on statistics and military theory. Without drones, in a conventional war, Ukraine would have fallen long ago because, in this war of attrition, recruitment is one of its weak points.

Ukraine does not have Russia’s manpower resources. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov revealed last January that more than two million Ukrainian men of conscription age are living in hiding to avoid being drafted. Fedorov also noted that official figures indicate that at least 200,000 soldiers have deserted, equivalent to more than 20% of the Ukrainian army.

“We have enormous problems with mobilization,” admits Sukharevskyi. The solution, according to him, would be to set limits on the period of military service: “Everyone should know how long they will be in the war. It’s a huge problem for our soldiers, especially for those who started fighting voluntarily at the beginning and are still fighting today; psychologically, it’s tough. When we tell our people exactly how long they will be fighting, recruitment will improve,” he proposes.

We have enormous problems with mobilization; when we tell our people exactly how long they will be fighting, recruitment will improve.

Sukharevskyi has been fighting Russia for 12 years and believes the Russian army “is good at learning and multiplying the results of that learning.” The best example is how Russia has been mimicking Ukrainian drone technology and combat tactics, evolving to the point of surpassing its rival. Where Ukraine continues to be superior — the most advanced country in the world, according to this colonel — is in the development of electronic warfare systems that interfere with drone communication with their pilots.

“What I’m certain of is that Europe is lagging behind,” Sukharevskyi states, referring to this military evolution: “Europe and the United States must prepare for future wars because they have problems with the production of artillery, ammunition, aircraft, anti-aircraft defenses, and the training of soldiers. Many European countries are unaware that the world has changed; they don’t understand that war is closer than they think.”

A good outcome for the war, according to Sukharevskyi, would be for Ukraine to regain the territories it lost in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces. He doesn’t include Donbas because he believes it’s unlikely Russia will relinquish what it has gained there. But the same logic could be applied to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. In any case, to achieve this goal, this Ukrainian hero concedes, his country would need to receive much more international aid than it has received so far, which has only served to keep them fighting.

And above all, he affirms, a “total unity of Europe and the world” is necessary: ​​“The European Union tells us that it is united, but the truth is that there are many problems with Russia’s friends, with Hungary and Slovakia, because the strength of Russian psychological warfare and disinformation is a great disadvantage for us,” he laments.

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