During a break from fighting the Russians<\/a>, an avuncular rifleman recalled how he was going for a haircut one day when he was press-ganged into joining the Ukrainian army.<\/p>\n Three recruitment officials accosted the stocky, gray-haired 47-year-old outside the barber shop in his small hometown, ordered him to get in a car and detained him for two days in a dark room at the local draft center until he had signed up.<\/p>\n \u201cI got my haircut at the training camp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Now known by his military call sign Dubok, the former electrical engineer offered to serve as a technician in the rear. \u201cBut to get that job, you have to pay bribes,\u201d he said. Instead, he was sent to join an infantry unit depleted by months of hard fighting. His battalion of the 47th Mechanized Brigade is defending the city of Avdiivka<\/a> against waves of Russian assaults, the biggest current battle in Russia\u2019s relentless war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysically, I can\u2019t handle this,\u201d Dubok said of front-line combat. \u201cI\u2019m deeply disappointed that I\u2019m no longer 20.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukraine needs to rebuild its battered army. The infantry, which bears the brunt of deaths and injuries, is chronically short of men after nearly two years of resisting Russia\u2019s full-blown invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n The most highly motivated fighters volunteered early. Those who haven\u2019t been killed or wounded often say they are exhausted. Ukraine now relies on the draft\u2014and sometimes on rounding up men\u2014to replenish the ranks. Meanwhile, Russia can draw on a much larger population<\/a> to replace its own heavy losses.<\/p>\n But a rickety draft system isn\u2019t mobilizing Ukraine\u2019s manpower effectively, providing the quantity and quality of troops needed, or sharing the burden fairly across Ukrainian society, say many soldiers and military analysts.<\/p>\n A combination of corruption, exemptions and political caution has protected much of Ukraine\u2019s urban middle class against having to fight in the cold and muddy trenches. On the long front line, a disproportionate share of draftees are middle-aged men like Dubok. Often they are from villages and small towns and were too poor to buy their way out.<\/p>\n Veteran soldiers who have been fighting since 2022\u2014some since 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine\u2019s east\u2014express frustration that new recruits are often past their physical prime.<\/p>\n \u201cThe quality of the replacements is not good. They\u2019re rural guys aged 43 to 50, sometimes with health problems,\u201d said an experienced infantryman fighting near Avdiivka.<\/p>\n Tired fighters note bitterly that when they go on leave in big cities such as Kyiv or Dnipro, they see able-bodied men in their 20s and 30s frequenting gyms, bars and hip restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have full-on mobilization\u201d of society, said a drone operator with the Ukrainian Navy\u2019s special forces, known by his call sign Dobro. \u201cBut it\u2019s a necessity. We can\u2019t do without it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the military was asking him for up to 500,000 more troops. He said no decision has been taken, calling\u00a0the issue \u201cvery sensitive.\u201d He noted that many soldiers\u00a0who have been fighting a long time will also need to be demobilized at some point.<\/p>\n Dubok, the 47-year-old, didn\u2019t protest or resist when he was detained at the draft center. \u201cI went to school with the guys who processed me. I didn\u2019t want to create problems for them,\u201d he said. He had been thinking about joining the military anyway. \u201cBut not this way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s most highly motivated fighters volunteered early, while those who haven\u2019t been killed or wounded often say they are exhausted.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The day Dubok was drafted, his wife was left waiting for him at home with strawberries and cream. Now he watches rats feasting on dead bodies<\/a> in the muddy battlefield around Avdiivka. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen such big rats in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Stories of men being confronted in the street and detained by draft officials abound in Ukraine. Some incidents have been filmed and put on the internet. \u201cIt\u2019s unlawful. They can only hand out draft notices, not detain people,\u201d said Serhiy Parokhnenko, a lawyer from Dnipro whose clients include men challenging their call-up.<\/p>\n A Defense Ministry official admitted violations by some local recruitment staff but said too many citizens are ignoring their army summons.<\/p>\n Finding willing recruits for the infantry is proving especially difficult in the current phase of attritional warfare. The West\u2019s fading support for Ukraine is darkening the country\u2019s mood, and making front-line combat even more daunting.<\/p>\n Growing Republican opposition in Congress<\/a> has held up U.S. military and financial aid. European Union aid<\/a> is being impeded by Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban has long had warm relations with Moscow.<\/p>\n Western deliveries of arms and ammunition have slowed sharply. Russia has regained a clear advantage in artillery firepower, where Ukraine had parity earlier this year.<\/p>\n About 800,000 people serve in Ukraine\u2019s armed forces, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov<\/a> said recently. Casualties in the war are a tightly held secret, but full hospitals and graveyards around Ukraine show the high price the country is paying to defy Russia\u2019s attempted conquest.<\/p>\n On paper, Ukraine still has a large reserve of potential manpower, with several million male residents in their 20s and 30s who have yet to fight. The military hasn\u2019t drafted men under the age of 27 so far, although Parliament has authorized a lower age limit of 25. Groups exempt from the draft include fathers of several children, carers for disabled people and workers in key sectors.<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s government had hoped that this summer\u2019s counteroffensive<\/a>, aimed at retaking swaths of Russian-occupied territory, would go a long way toward winning the war\u2014and obviate the need for a politically unpopular push to draft more young people in Kyiv.<\/p>\n Instead, Ukrainian assault troops made few dents in Russia\u2019s heavily fortified lines<\/a>. Casualties compounded the infantry\u2019s losses in the grueling 10-month defense of the city of Bakhmut<\/a>, which fell to Russian forces this spring.<\/p>\n \u201cSad news from the front is discouraging citizens from joining,\u201d said Dobro, the drone operator. Ukrainian army commanders who use costly Soviet-style tactics of frontal assaults are adding to people\u2019s fear of being drafted, he said. \u201cNow people realize that if you want to live to see the end of the war, you shouldn\u2019t go to the infantry.\u201d<\/p>\n Army advertisements acknowledge people\u2019s trepidations. Recruitment posters tell people \u201cit\u2019s brave to admit your fears.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Ukraines-most-highly-motivated-fighter-voluteered-early.jpg\")
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