Ukraine's army is loosening the reins, with its new commander-in-chief thinning the stream of reports he demands, though the general overhaul is still only partial. That is how Yurii Butusov, a front-line drone-company commander, describes the changes under Mykhailo Drapatyi in an interview with Apostrophe TV.

In July 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced former Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi with Drapatyi. Butusov says the new arrangement has improved control on Donbas but has not yet reached other hard-pressed sectors.

From "manual mode" to a divided chain of command

Under Syrskyi, Butusov said, the command system was centralized, with the commander-in-chief holding full authority and serving as the sole decision-making authority.

"A manual mode of controlling every unit," he called it.

Syrskyi, by his account, followed the front down to individual companies, battalions and brigades, and could hand tasks directly to small units. Under Drapatyi, Butusov said, that has begun to change.

"For now Mykhailo Drapatyi does not yet have the full scope of authority. Perhaps this is just temporary. The command system now consists of the following: Ihor Skybiuk, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and the chief of the General Staff," Butusov said.

They have their own spheres of authority and their own views on various problems.

He suggested the arrangement could be temporary or could become the basis of the army's future command structure.

Fewer reports, two new Donbas commands, and the gaps left behind

Among the concrete changes, Butusov pointed to the scrapping of the twice-daily reports that corps and other large-formation commanders had been required to make to the commander-in-chief.

Drapatyi has also created two troop groupings on Donbas, "Center" and "Azov," which Butusov said have markedly improved control of the force and the division of responsibility there. The redesign, though, is uneven.

"But these changes are fragmentary. For example, in the Kharkiv Oblast a troop grouping has still not been created," Butusov added.

Ukraine has offered its soldiers a fixed term and a guaranteed way home under new contracts to encourage more people to enlist. However, in more than four months, only about 8,600 have signed, a drop in the ocean for a force of around a million, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

The system, launched on 15 June 2026 as an experimental government project, lets soldiers sign for a fixed term for the first time: infantry-assault contracts of 6 to 14 months, and combat and base contracts of two years, each ending in a guaranteed discharge and a deferral from re-mobilization.

That guarantee was meant to draw people in, but many soldiers, even some who signed, do not believe the state will let them go when their term ends.

Soldiers don’t trust the way out

The most common answer soldiers give is flat: “I don’t believe that after the contract ends I will really be able to leave and get a deferral.”

The doubt has history: officials have promised fixed service terms since 2023 and kept pushing them back. About 2,000 had signed a month after enrollment opened, and the total has crept only to around 8,600 since.

Veterans have a second grievance: those who have served since 2022 can sign for the same terms as raw recruits and get the same deferral, which starts at six months, too short, many say, to rebuild a civilian life before the draft reaches them again.

The raises that split the ranks

Meanwhile, new pay is reaching the troops. Higher combat payments are going out after some early paperwork delays, commanders confirm.

“The guys are getting good money. Everyone is very satisfied,” says Oleksandr Nastenko, who commands the 475th separate assault regiment “Code 9.2” under the callsign Flint.

The increases, though, were uneven, now one of the sorest points in the ranks. Infantry and assault troops saw the biggest jump, from about $2,700 to between $6,700 and $10,300 a month, while drone operators and other combat specialists who often share the same trenches received no comparable raise.

Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara’s team is now weighing which parts of the experiment to carry into a future reform bill.