The Guardian: Ukrainian military is exhausted and personnel shortage is getting worse
Pravda Ukraine
The Guardian, a British media outlet, has published an article stating that Ukrainian forces are facing military exhaustion and a shortage of personnel.
Source: The Guardian with reference to two former soldiers and one of the commanders
Details: After years of fighting, more and more soldiers are leaving their units without authorisation, although the extent of this is classified. The servicemen attribute the problem to fatigue and unrealistic orders.
Quote from The Guardian: “After three years of war, Ukraine is desperately short of soldiers, especially infantry. This has made it easier for Russia’s army to advance in the east. There are structural issues too. New brigades have been built from scratch. They performed poorly.”
Details: The article says that many of those who deserted the army are hiding somewhere, but there are also those who live and work openly.
“Everybody is tired. The mood has changed. People used to hug soldiers in the streets. Now they worry about being conscripted,” The Guardian quoted former soldier Viktor as saying.
Viktor also said that after another injury, he was immediately sent back to the contact line, and that’s when he realised he was a “nobody” and decided to leave his military unit without authorisation.
The journalists who spoke to the servicemen noted that Ukrainians who took part in the combat actions, particularly in the south of Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts, described chaotic fighting, a lack of artillery support and tensions with the command. Some of them decided to leave the service and “abandoned their units” after being wounded and unsuccessfully attempting to be transferred.
Some are in hiding, waiting for changes or possible detention. Another deserter, Oleksii, said that he “would take up arms again if the Russians came into his town, or if the Ukrainian army became a genuinely reformed Nato style force, with better generals”.
“I’m alive. The longer the war goes on the more people like me there will be,” Oleksii said.
Background:
- In January 2025, it became known that mass desertions had occurred in the ranks of the 155th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the autumn of 2024.
- On 21 November 2024, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) passed a law on voluntary return to service for the first unauthorised abandonment or desertion of a unit.
- Under the new law, soldiers who left their place of service without authorisation for the first time had to return by 1 January 2025 to avoid criminal liability.
- On 9 January, the Verkhovna Rada supported the extension of the voluntary return to service for those soldiers who had left their units without permission until 1 March 2025.
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