Former “Chosen Company” company commander Ryan OʼLeary criticized the Defense Forces command for choosing the wrong tactics of war.
His main theses concern the principles of the work of Ukrainian FPV drone crews, which restrain the offensive of Russian infantry. According to OʼLeary, Ukrainian drone pilots focused on knocking out infantrymen, because it looks impressive on video and gives the necessary statistics.
At the same time, no one knocks out the enemyʼs logistics at a depth of 10-40 kilometers behind the front line (the so-called operational depth) and no one is responsible for the security of logistics in the Ukrainian rear. Russian drone pilots, especially specialized units such as "Rubicon", strike precisely at logistics: vehicles, communication nodes and Ukrainian drone crews. Since drone crews are a critical vulnerability of the defense line, it fails if their supplies are cut off and communications are suppressed.
American Ryan OʼLeary has been fighting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2022. The company he commanded until the summer of 2025 was formed from volunteers, mostly US citizens. Initially a separate formation, it later became part of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade of the UAVs. The brigade itself is part of the UAV Forces.
This is not the first time OʼLeary has criticized senior commanders. After Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Shevchuk became the brigade commander, he tweeted several times that the command was sending valuable specialists on ill-conceived and unprepared assaults (in May, the brigade commander of the 59th separate assault brigade of the UAV systems division changed, and Oleksandr Sak took his place).
Now OʼLeary is writing about "depth control". According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine treat their own rear areas as if they were nobodyʼs: no one is responsible for their security.
At the same time, Russian drones strike the most important targets precisely in the operational depth of Ukrainian battle formations. They strike vehicles and equipment, not individual people, purposefully hunting for aerial reconnaissance and FPV crews, on which the front is held. Thatʼs why the front is faltering.
Ryan OʼLeary proposes to solve the problem by dividing the depths between different agencies and branches of the military: the Ground Forces, the SBS, the SSO, and so on.
«Babel'»
Ryan OʼLearyʼs post was commented on by aerial reconnaissance officer Oleksandr Karpyuk (“Serg Marco”), who serves in the 59th Separate Assault Brigade of the UAVs, which included the “Chosen Company” company.
He says that OʼLeary is essentially right. However, according to Karpyuk, the problem is more complicated than the former Chosen Company commander thinks. It cannot be solved as simply as OʼLeary suggests, because the situation on the battlefield has changed since 2023-2024. Currently, the Defense Forces lack neither crews nor technology to work "in depth".
Karpyuk tells how in 2023 his brigade defended a sector near the village of Pervomayske, located 30 km northwest of the entrance to Donetsk on the E50 highway. The Russian army threw a large number of infantry at their positions, no less than under Bakhmut.
The brigade’s units fought back, but “went on thin ice”, and after that they changed their principles of operation — they moved the main area of defeat deep into the enemy’s positions.
With the help of reconnaissance “wings”, they continuously monitored the logistics of the Russian army, and their FPVs flew not to a specific target, but to a certain sector with an area of 5-7 square kilometers, and already in this sector they hunted for transport. O’Leary saw how the brigade’s drones worked, and understood the effectiveness of work in the rear.
However, Karpyuk writes that since then, conditions on the battlefield have changed. The Russian army has protected its rear areas with electronic warfare devices that jam signals on the two most popular frequencies: 1.3 GHz and 5.8 GHz.
It is on these two standard frequencies that most Ukrainian FPV drones transmit video signals. That is why they simply do not reach the enemy’s rear areas now. In addition, the Russian army has developed “anti-aircraft” crews that intercept Ukrainian “wings”-scouts in 15-20 minutes, and it is impossible to organize constant surveillance due to its logistics.
It has begun to knock out Ukrainian rear areas with the help of fiber-optic drones. This is an expensive but effective solution, because fiber-optic communication cannot be suppressed by electronic warfare.
It is possible to protect against them (for example, with special engineering barriers ), but it is more difficult to do so.
Fighters of the anti-aircraft crew of the 59th separate assault brigade watch the sky, waiting for the Shahed. July 2025 Fighters of the Shkval battalion of the 59th separate assault brigade undergo training in the Dnipropetrovsk region. January 2026.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Ryan OʼLearyʼs post was also commented on by the commander of the UAV Forces Robert Brovdi.
He writes that the UAV units work in the interests of the corps commanders, and they all ask for work on the Russian infantry. That is why the average depth at which the UAV Forces hits targets is 1.44 kilometers, that is, "underfoot".
Each corps commander has hundreds of his own drone crews at his disposal, but "no one is ready to let the UAV Forces work to the proper depth". In order for the situation to change qualitatively and for the UAV Forces to be able to increase the depth of destruction, they must first increase their number threefold.
Currently, they cover less than a third of the front line. The commanderʼs plans are to completely close the front, which is 1 200 kilometers long.
At the same time, Brovdi notes, the UAV Forces units have a plan for working out the targets: infantry and equipment. According to this plan, the Russian infantry should make up only 30 percent. The current figure is 39 percent.
Obviously, the rest of the enemyʼs losses are equipment, antennas, enemy "wings". You can see the full statistics of the UAV Forces in general and each of their individual units on a special online scoreboard.
It only contains classified information about the results of the work of 1 separate center for UAVs, the UAV Forces, which deals with “deep strikes” — hitting targets at strategic depths in Russia.
Babel reported in detail on its work last year.