from your link:
"But for how much longer?
How long could Winston Churchill’s Britain have hung on if “the new world, with all its power and might” hadn’t stepped forth? And as America — forgetful and careless of its role as the leader of the free world — squanders what its forefathers sacrificed on the battlefields of Europe, how much longer can Ukraine hang on?
The signs are worrisome.
Ukraine is short of men and desperately short on ammunition. It’s now fielding a largely volunteer middle-aged army — 43 years is the average age of its frontline soldiers — and there’s also mounting evidence of draft dodging. The BBC recently reported that 650,000 Ukrainian men of fighting age fled the country in the past two years."
Evidence of draft dodging?
Largely volunteer?
Ukraine’s conscription struggles are stirring domestic tensions
Mathias Hammer
March 4, 2024·2 min read
yahoo.com
Semafor Signals Supported by
Insights from The Kyiv Independent, Unian, The New York Times, and Bloomberg
The NewsUkraine’s struggles to recruit enough soldiers to battle advancing Russian troops has put its leadership under increasing pressure.
The lack of a clear mobilization strategy “has fueled deep divisions in Ukraine’s parliament and more broadly in Ukrainian society,” The Washington Post reported on Monday. A plan to expand conscription is making its way through Parliament at a snail’s pace, with more than 4,000 amendments tabled so far.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military leadership is searching for more combat-ready troops. Of the almost one million Ukrainians that have been mobilized, only 200,000 to 300,000 have served on the frontline, the presidential administration has said, without yet explaining why 700,000 mobilized people have not served on the battlefield.
SIGNALSSemafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.Mobilizing more troops is politically contentiousSources: The New York Times, Center for European Policy Analysis, The Washington Post, Unian, BloombergWhile there is a widespread consensus among military experts that Ukraine is in need of more troops, expanding the draft is a thorny issue politically. The existing mobilization system sets the minimum age for conscription at 27 in an effort to shield Ukraine’s younger generation from the frontlines, but the new proposals suggest lowering the age to 25 and could include harsh consequences for non-compliance such as suspending state benefits or seizing bank assets.
“It’s a hot potato,” Petro Burkovskiy, the head of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a think tank in Kyiv, told The New York Times. “The political leadership decided to avoid the issue of mobilization” but continuing to ignore the problem is no longer possible, he added. Yet as Kyiv seeks to bolster its military, it must balance its need for troops with maintaining Ukraine’s economic backbone. Officials say it takes eight taxpayers to sustain every soldier, the Ukrainian news agency Unian reported. But employers in key sectors such as agriculture worry that they will run out of workers, risking a key source of government revenue.
Lack of rotation has left frontline troops exhaustedSources: The Washington Post, The Kyiv Independent A key issue that has yet to be resolved is the demobilization of frontline soldiers, many of whom have rarely been rotated away from the front since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Rare protests broke out in Kyiv in December as more than 100 women gathered to call for the government to demobilize their relatives. “ Soldiers are not made of iron,” they chanted. On the frontline, soldiers have complained that long deployments and a lack of rotation has left troops physically and mentally drained. “ There is no one to replace them, so they sit there more, their morale drops, they get sick or suffer frostbite,” a Ukrainian battalion commander told The Washington Post.
Gee...with such an overflow of volunteers, one might wonder why Z had to go the forced conscription route....
Ukrainian president signs controversial law to boost conscription to fend off Russia’s aggression
By HANNA ARHIROVA
Updated 4:42 AM HST, April 16, 2024
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a controversial law Tuesday, days after it was passed by parliament, potentially helping Kyiv to boost conscription to replenish depleted forces to fend off Russia’s continued aggression.
The mobilization law, published on Ukraine’s Parliamentary website, is expected to take effect in a month and make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country. Many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.
The law also provides soldiers with incentives, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car, which according to analysts Ukraine can’t afford.
Ukraine has been struggling to fend off the Russian advance.
Since the full-scale invasion began in Feb.2022, Russia has captured nearly a quarter of Ukraine, which is outnumbered, outgunned and in desperate need of more troops and ammunition, as doubt increases about Western military aid.
The signed law was watered down from its original draft. It didn’t include a provision that would rotate out troops who had served 36 months of combat. Authorities said a separate bill on demobilization and rotation would be prepared in the coming months. But the delay caused public outrage among Ukrainians whose relatives have been fighting without breaks for two years.
Exhausted soldiers have no means of taking a break from front-line work because of the current scale and intensity of the war.
Ukraine already suffers from a lack of trained soldiers capable of fighting, and demobilizing soldiers on the front lines now would deprive its forces of the most capable fighters.
In December, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military wanted to mobilize up to 500,000 more troops. Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has since conducted an audit of the military and said soldiers could be rotated from the rear to the front line. The number was revised but has not been disclosed.
HANNA ARHIROVA
Arhirova is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine. She is based in Kyiv. |
