The Guardian: Ukrainian military is exhausted and personnel shortage is getting worse
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 leave 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 leave until 1 March 2025.
. . .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.. .
In the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians rushed to military recruitment centres to defend their country. Almost three years of war later, the momentum has stalled. Our correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.
Whilst hundreds of thousands rushed to join the Ukrainian armed forces when Russia invaded in 2022, today, the picture is not so rosy.
Mobilisation is faltering, with many men having found ways – both legal and illegal – to exempt themselves, and others avoiding detection easily enough. Voluntary recruitment initiatives have shown some success but only in certain well-run brigades, and not enough to provide the numbers needed overall.
Watch moreUkraine divided over controversial mobilisation bill
Moreover, desertion or, more frequently absence without leave or going AWOL (which under Ukrainian law covers any unauthorised departure that does not happen in the heat of battle and/or where the soldier intends to return to the ranks), has become widespread: 95,000 cases since 2022, most of them occurring last year.
The high casualty rate and tough conditions of the war are certainly one factor in discouraging Ukrainian men from fighting. But many Ukrainians are convinced that with better command, organisation and the offer of a chance to leave the armed forces after a certain period of time, there is still scope to recruit the tens of thousands that are still needed to turn the tide against Russia.
Read more 'Dozens' of Ukraine soldiers deserted while training in France
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152-mm Msta-B howitzer crews of airborne artillery units wipe out AFU temporary deployment area on right bank of Dnepr River in Kherson region :
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