Ukraine's Best Young "Mustang" Generals Tapped To Lead Donbas Fighting

In a sign that a younger generation of war-toughened leaders who have spurned the Soviet training of their predecessors have now taken over running Ukraine's increasingly successful war against Russia, Ukraine has appointed two generals in their 30s and 40s to lead the fighting in the crucial Donbas front. 

With a new Ukrainian army chief of staff also in his 40s, this signals that commanders who came of age fighting the Russians are now applying that experience and leadership to finishing the fight against the Kremlin's stalled invasion. JL

Stefan Korshak reports in the Kyiv Post:

President Zelensky named a pair of young generals known for proved battlefield skills to command forces holding Ukraine’s Donbas region. Brig. Gen. Denys Prokopenko, 35, a Kyiv native who studied  to become an English teacher, first fought Russian troops in 2014 as a volunteer. He is best known in Ukraine for leading a defense of  Mariupol, and later for building the “Azov” Corps into the one of the Ukraine’s hardest-fighting units. Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletsky, 47, a Kharkiv native, is a trained historian. He first saw combat as a volunteer in 2014. In 2022 Biletsky raised a unit fighting in defense of Kyiv. The unit converted to regular army, expanding into the 3rd Army Corps. Both Prokopenko and Biletsky are a generation younger than the Soviet-trained officers that led the Armed Forces in 2022.

President Voldymyr Zelensky on Wednesday named a pair of young generals known for proved battlefield skills to command major forces trying to hold in Ukraine’s Donbas region, the main objective of Russia’s ongoing offensive.

Brig. Gen. Denys Prokopenko, 35, a Kyiv native who studied at university to become an English teacher, first fought Russian troops in 2014 as a civilian volunteer. He is best known in Ukraine for leading a die-hard defense of the port city Mariupol in 2022, and later for building the 1st National Guard Corps “Azov” into the one of the Ukraine’s hardest-fighting military formations. Azov Corps training emphasizes discipline and individual soldier skills.

Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletsky, 47, a Kharkiv native, is a trained historian and martial arts enthusiast. He first saw combat as a volunteer rifleman during Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. When Russia invaded Ukraine a second time in 2022 Biletsky raised a volunteer civilian unit fighting in defense of Kyiv. The unit converted to regular forces and in following years expanded into the all arms 3rd Army Corps, a crack unit at the forefront of Ukrainian tactical drone operations. 

Both Prokopenko and Biletsky are a generation younger than the Soviet-trained general officer corps that led the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in 2022. Zelensky in July sacked then-AFU Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, at the time 60, in favor of Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapaty, 43, another battle-tested, wartime generation general with deep combat experience. 

Ukrainian military information platforms linked Prokopenko and Biletsky’s promotions over the heads of dozens of older AFU generals with a Zelensky-Drapaty plan to raise successful field commanders to senior roles, even if those appointments violated army seniority traditions usually awarding promotion to officers serving in uniform the longest.

Biletsky’s 3rd Corps has been deployed for more than a year in the northern Donetsk region defending a 150-kilometer (93-mile) long sector between the city of Lyman and the village of Borova. According to Biletsky his troops hold strong fortifications against which Russian attacks make little or no progress. Independent monitors confirmed that the 3rd Corps launched limited but successful counterattacks around Lyman city in June-August. 

Prokopenko’s 1st Corps arrived in the Dobropillya sector, to the south of 3rd Corps, in August 2025 as an emergency reaction force responding to a Russian breakthrough. Since then the formation has recaptured all lost ground. In the later stages of the counteroffensive Zelensky broke with military precedent and approved Prokopenko’s temporary command of regular army units not normally subordinate to the 1st Corps.

On paper an AFU Corps at full strength contains about 18,000 soldiers and around 250 armored vehicles. Actual AFU unit combat power figures are a military secret, but units at 50 percent strength are common. An April Ukrainian military situation estimate said that Russia had concentrated more than 80,000 troops in Ukraine’s Donetsk region with the objective of conquering it completely by the end of September. 

Zelensky in a televised statement said the Donetsk region defenses will be reorganized into two new force groupings, one led by Prokopenko and the other by Biletsky. Television images showed Zelensky, Drapaty, Prokopenko and Biletsky meeting with Drapaty’s chief of staff Pavlo Palisa, 41, Brig. Gen. Oleh Apostol, 39, commander of the AFU’s airborne assault infantry forces, and Maj. Robert Brovdi, 51, commander of the AFU’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF).

Apostol’s elite air assault units have operated in tandem with the 1st and 3rd Corps in the past, but have only rarely been placed under either of those formations’ direct command.

Reports earlier in the week, some sourced directly to the unit itself, confirmed that the 425th Assault Regiment, an attack unit operating in both the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk sectors as an independent force, had been assigned to 1st Corps and by Wednesday was in action near the city Kostyantynivka.

Brovdi, one of the first commanders in any army to field drone swarms against massed tank attacks, in a post-meeting statement on his personal Telegram channel said that Drapaty’s plan was exactly what the sector needed to shut down further Russian assaults.

“This is Smart War. The [parallel] Force Groupings of Redis (Prokopenko’s call sign) and Biletsky have been created. The time of network-centric war has come. There will be total synchronization with the USF. The time chain between sensor and shooter will be minimal. Worms, cover your eyes!” 

A former grain trader, Brovdi is a lead innovator and longtime proponent of Ukrainian “drone wall” tactics that saturate a defense zone with observation and kamikaze strike aircraft for 10 to 30 kilometers, making attacks highly costly and often suicidal. “Worm” is a Ukrainian army slang term for a Russian soldier, particularly if observed by drone.

Ukrainian military analyst Vasyl Pekhno in a Thursday YouTube report on the AFU’s latest Donetsk region defense plans: “Two of our truly legendary commanders... will receive new responsibilities… the point is that, in order to genuinely hold Donetsk Oblast now, we need to significantly reinforce these sectors, including in terms of command and control.”

“They are trying to secure positions around the cities before the cold weather arrives, when there will be no vegetation – when the battlefield will become completely open and transparent, so to speak,” Pekhno said. “Remaining out in the fields over the winter means signing your own death warrant.”

Pekhno suggested the AFU could concentrate three army corps: the 3rd, 11th and 19th to hold the northern face of the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk defenses under Biletsky’s overall command, and the 1st and 20th Corps, along with attached air assault infantry units, on the southern face. As described by Pekhno, such force groupings would be unprecedented for the AFU both by scale and the young age of the officers in command. 

Ukrainian military journalist Yuriy Butusov in a Wednesday evening call-in interview discussing the Biletsky and Prokopenko appointments said that they were sensible and would help, but that Ukrainians should understand that defenses in the Donetsk sector are weakening under regular Russian attacks.

“If we look at what is happening at the front, primarily in Donbas, this is the biggest challenge we have faced during the war. The situation is completely unstable, completely uncontrolled, absolutely such that it requires rapid decisions… The enemy has come very close to Slovyansk. In fact, how close? They are practically on the outskirts of Slovyansk… At the moment, this is the main – the only, best – natural defensive line,” Butusov said. “But rapid decisions need to be made now, before it is too late.”

The independent military information platform DeepState in a Wednesday report on fighting in the Donetsk sector said that the epicenter of combat is around the town Kostyantynivka “which the enemy is relentlessly trying to occupy… there is active infiltration into the city and our military is forced to conduct constant reconnaissance of the enemy, who is hiding in houses, basements, ruins, etc.” 

The next midrange objectives for Russian forces, that report said, would be in the 1st Corps sector towards the towns of Rayohorodok and Mykolaivka, where a new wave of attacks is now taking place.