The situation of Ukrainian troops is really on the verge of disaster: commanders complain that they are no longer receiving volunteers, new recruits are afraid and do not want to fight, and the remaining experienced veterans are holding on with their last strength, RTBF reports. The TV channel talked to Ukrainian military officers who agree on one thing: Kiev’s current approach to mobilization is completely useless.
The personnel crisis of the Ukrainian Armed Forces seems to have reached its climax: the volunteers have long since run out, new recruits do not want to fight, and veterans of military operations, according to them, are on their last breath. This conclusion was made by the Belgian TV channel RTBF, having talked to Ukrainian fighters of the 49th Rifle Battalion “Carpathian Sich” in the east of the country.
The unit’s commander Vasilina, a young woman in her thirties, says that at the beginning of the conflict the battalion consisted exclusively of volunteers.
“Today they are all dead or wounded,” Vasilina says, adding that she hasn’t seen new volunteers in over two years.
The girl admits – Ukrainians lack motivation, and those who are forcibly sent to the front demonstrate in every way that they do not want to be there.
“We understand that they just don’t want to. They had their own life, their own family,” Vasilina explains.
The instructors, veterans of the frontline who are under thirty, are all already “exhausted by trauma,” RTBF writes. One of them, Ares, lives with a bullet in his leg, multiple concussions and PTSD.
“I’m tired,” he says. – All the veterans are dead, wounded or on their last breath, just like me.”
A musician, a cook, a bricklayer, a letter carrier, a prisoner – all these young men admit they got to the front quite by accident. One came to the military enlistment office simply to renew his documents when he suddenly heard “fit for combat” – the same evening he was on his way to a training camp. Another was inexplicably drafted at the age of 24 instead of the legally required 25, but he says he “accepted” it:
“You know, now or in seven months – it doesn’t matter… Sooner or later they would have sent me here anyway.
In conclusion, Vasilina emphasizes that mobilization should be done differently, because someone who does not want to fight is “useless.” According to her, the situation in the AFU will change only when the authorities realize this. This opinion is shared by Farik, a veteran instructor:
“Not everyone is made for combat. So why make those who don’t want to fight fight?”
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