approved roughly $54 billion in aid<\/a> after it was delayed for weeks by opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.<\/p>\nThe debate in Kyiv about mobilization \u2014 and to what degree the country should ramp it up \u2014 has angered soldiers on the front line.<\/p>\n
Oleksandr, a battalion commander, said the companies in his unit on average are staffed at about 35 percent of what they should be. A second battalion commander from an assault brigade said that is typical for units that carry out combat tasks.<\/p>\n
Asked how many new soldiers he has received \u2014 not including those who have returned after injuries \u2014 Oleksandr said his battalion was sent five people over the past five months. He and other commanders said the new recruits tend to be poorly trained, creating a dilemma about whether to send someone immediately onto the battlefield because reinforcements are needed so badly, even though they are likely to get injured or killed because they lack the know-how.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe basis of everything is the lack of people,\u201d Oleksandr said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are we going? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s no positive outlook. Absolutely none. It\u2019s going to end in a lot of death, a global failure. And most likely, I think, the front will collapse somewhere like it did for the enemy in 2022, in the Kharkiv region.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fall 2022, the Ukrainians took advantage of a weak spot in the Russian front line, where Moscow\u2019s forces were undermanned, and managed to liberate most of the northeast region in a swift one-week September offensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the embarrassing defeat by announcing a mobilization in his country.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian parliament is in the process of revising a draft law on mobilization that will lower the minimum conscription age to 25 from 27. But lawmakers working on the bill and soldiers alike have acknowledged that Kyiv has done a poor job explaining to the public why sending more people to the front is necessary.<\/p>\n
Instead, the messaging has been confused, with Zelensky and Zaluzhny contradicting each other publicly and creating an appearance of infighting.<\/p>\n
In August, Zelensky fired the heads of all of Ukraine\u2019s regional military recruitment offices, citing concerns about corruption. But with some of those positions left vacant, mobilization came to a halt, a high-ranking military official said. Commanders in the field confirmed that they have had few new people arrive since the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have direct trouble with personnel,\u201d said Mykyta, a deputy infantry battalion commander. \u201cBecause this is war, and it\u2019s infantry in defense that\u2019s dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking with my friends, also officers in other units, and those in infantry; it\u2019s almost the same situation everywhere,\u201d Mykyta added.<\/p>\n
Shortages of ammunition and weapons are also an issue. A commander whose unit was recently moved to a new part of the front in eastern Ukraine said he received 10 shells for two howitzers. Zelensky has acknowledged that artillery ammunition deliveries have slowed as Europe struggles to manufacture enough shells to meet Ukraine\u2019s needs and as the aid package remains stalled in Washington.<\/p>\n
The personnel shortages can have a domino effect, Ukrainian troops in the field said.<\/p>\n
Especially in winter, when the weather conditions are hard, infantry should be rotated out after about three days. But because units lack troops, deployments get extended \u2014 or personnel intended for the rear get pressed into front-line duty despite being ill-prepared for it. Troops who are mentally and physically exhausted because of overwork sometimes can\u2019t defend their posts, allowing Russia \u2014 with more manpower and ammunition \u2014 to advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to be replaced by someone,\u201d said Oleksandr, the battalion commander. \u201cThere is no one to replace them, so they sit there more, their morale drops, they get sick or suffer frostbite. They are running out. There is no one to replace them. The front is cracking. The front is crumbling. Why can\u2019t we replace them? Because we don\u2019t have people; nobody comes to the army. Why doesn\u2019t anyone come to the army? Because the country didn\u2019t tell people that they should go to the army. The state failed to explain to people that they should go to the army. Those who knew that they should go, they have already all run out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serhiy, 41, a platoon commander fighting in Avdiivka, the site of Russia\u2019s most intense assaults, said he and his men are rarely rotated out after just three days. More often five days go by \u2014 or even 10.<\/p>\n
Dmytro, another deputy battalion commander in a different brigade, said his infantry typically get two days of rest after five to 10 days holding the line, and because most of his soldiers are over the age of 40, their lack of physical fitness compounds the problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel it; people are exhausted both morally and physically,\u201d Serhiy said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard, the weather conditions, the constant shelling. They have a great impact on the human psyche.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lack of rotations is a problem across the Ukrainian military \u2014 not just for infantry on the line. Soldiers might get a few days off to go home and see their families, but rarely more. They say they are still motivated to fight the Russian invaders, but also that they need rest and more men beside them.<\/p>\n
Zelensky has also asked the military and parliament to prepare a law to demobilize those who have been fighting for nearly two years. Members of parliament working on the bill have said they are discussing a plan to discharge, or \u201cdemobilize,\u201d soldiers who have been on the front for 36 months. But that would require sending people in to replace them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery soldier thinks about that guy that walks around in Dnipro or Lviv or Kyiv,\u201d Mykyta said. \u201cThey think about them and they want to have a rest, too. Of course, in their heads appears the thought: Some guys are just strolling around there, but we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Post finally admits what this website and others have been saying for some time; in an article that concedes that the Ukrainian Army is suffering from a shortage of properly trained troops, ammunition and equipment, the WP paints a picture of an army on the verge of defeat <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":281531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281534,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281529\/revisions\/281534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/281531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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