WP writes about critical shortage of infantry in Ukrainian army and decline in morale

The Washington Post has written that, in addition to ammunition, Ukrainian forces lack infantry, there are few new recruits, and soldiers on the front line are exhausted and losing their spirit.

Source: The Washington Post with reference to the Ukrainian military

Quote: "The Ukrainian military is facing a critical shortage of infantry, leading to exhaustion and diminished morale on the front line, military personnel in the field said this week — a perilous new dynamic for Kyiv nearly two years into the grinding, bloody war with Russia."

Details: In interviews conducted in recent days on the front line, nearly a dozen soldiers and commanders told The Washington Post (WP) that the shortage of personnel is their most pressing concern now that Russia has restarted its offensive on the battlefield and is stepping up its attacks. The interviewed soldiers spoke on condition of anonymity.

The commander of a battalion of a mechanised brigade fighting in Ukraine’s east said that his unit currently has less than 40 infantrymen, soldiers who are in the trenches on the front line, holding back Russian attacks. The commander added that a fully manned battalion should have more than 200 soldiers.

Another commander of an infantry battalion in another brigade said his unit was similarly exhausted.

WP noted that the reports of a severe manpower shortage come as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to replace Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, due to factors including disagreements over how many new soldiers Ukraine needs to draft.

The Office of the President of Ukraine declined to comment, referring the question to the Ministry of Defence, which in turn referred the question to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The General Staff did not respond to a request for comment.

Two people familiar with the matter said Zaluzhnyi told Zelenskyy that Ukraine needed nearly 500,000 new soldiers, but the president rejected the figure both privately and publicly. Zelenskyy said he wanted a stronger justification from Ukraine's military leadership for why so many conscripts are needed, and also expressed concern about how Kyiv will pay them - financial assistance from Western partners cannot be used to pay soldiers' salaries.

WP stated that the debate in Kyiv about mobilisation and the extent to which the country should step it up had angered soldiers on the front line.

Oleksandr, a battalion commander, said that companies in his unit have on average 35% of the required manpower.

The second battalion commander of an assault brigade said that this is a typical situation for units that perform combat missions.

When asked how many new soldiers he had received – not including those who had returned after recovering from injury – Oleksandr said that over the past 5 months, five men had been sent to his battalion. 

He and other commanders say that the new recruits are usually poorly trained, which creates a dilemma: whether the benefits of sending green recruits straight to the battlefield to ease the manpower shortage outweigh the elevated risks of them being injured or killed.

"Where are we going? I don’t know. There’s no positive outlook. Absolutely none. It’s 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 Kharkiv Oblast," Oleksandr said.

A senior military official stated that mobilisation had stopped after the dismissal of the heads of the regional military enlistment offices in August, as some positions remained unoccupied. Commanders on the fronts confirmed that few new recruits had arrived since the autumn.

Mykyta, deputy commander of an infantry battalion, said: "We have direct trouble with personnel. Because this is war, and it’s the defensive infantry that’s dying. I’m talking with my friends, officers in other units, and those in infantry; the situation is nearly the same everywhere."  

The lack of ammunition and weapons is also a problem. A commander whose unit had recently been redeployed to a new section of the front line in Ukraine’s east said he had received 10 rounds of ammunition for two howitzers. 

However, the shortage of manpower can have a domino effect, according to Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.

Especially in difficult winter weather conditions, infantry should be rotated approximately every three days. But due to a shortage of personnel, units take longer to deploy – or personnel assigned to the rear are forced to serve on the front line, despite being ill-prepared for it.

WP said that "troops who are mentally and physically exhausted because of overwork sometimes can’t defend their posts, allowing Russia — with more manpower and ammunition — to advance."

Oleksandr, the battalion commander, says: "They need to be replaced by someone. But there is no one to replace them, so they sit there longer and longer; their morale drops, they get sick or suffer frostbite. They are running on empty. There is no one to replace them. The front is cracking. The front is crumbling. 

Why can’t we replace them? Because we don’t have people; nobody comes to join the army. Why doesn’t anyone join the army? Because the country didn’t tell people that they should join the army. The state failed to explain to people that they should join the army. Those who [already] knew that they should go have already [all joined]."

Serhii, 41, a platoon commander fighting in Avdiivka, says that he and his men are rarely rotated out after three days. More often it takes five days or even 10.

Dmytro, another deputy battalion commander in another brigade, said his infantry unit usually gets two days of rest after 5-10 days of holding the front line, and the fact that most of his soldiers are over 40 and lack physical fitness compounds the problem.

"You can feel it; people are exhausted both morally and physically. It’s very hard, the weather conditions, the constant shelling. They have a great impact on the human psyche," Serhii said.

"Every soldier thinks about the guys just walking around in Dnipro or Lviv or Kyiv. They think about them and they want to have a rest, too. Of course, the thought pops into their head that some guys still get to stroll around back home, whilst they’re on the front line," Mykyta admitted.

WP added that the lack of rotation is a problem for the entire Ukrainian military – not just the infantry on the front line. Soldiers may 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 they also need rest and more men by their side.

Why this is important: Ukraine has switched from counteroffensive to defensive operations on the front line. In unofficial conversations, soldiers talk about the understaffing of units and the need for new recruits. The authorities do not officially disclose this, but have prepared a bill to bolster mobilisation, which the Verkhovna Rada passed in the first reading on 7 February. 

Zelenskyy also asked the military and parliament to prepare a law on the demobilisation of soldiers with three or more years or service. The option of "demobilising" soldiers after 36 months (giving them the option to resign from the Armed Forces) was discussed. But the military would need people to replace them.

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