Head of Come Back Alive Foundation on mobilisation in Ukraine: 500,000 is a realistic figure

Ukraine needs to mobilise about 500,000 people for the country's defence, and this is a "realistic figure", Taras Chmut, Head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, has said.

Source: Chmut in an interview with DW

Chmut had been reminded that NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko said another 160,000 Ukrainians need to be drafted in order to staff the combat brigades by 85%.

Quote: "A brigade can be 50% staffed, and if you ask the commander how many riflemen and infantry there are, there could be 15, 20, 25 people in a company. But on paper, you seem to have a lot of people. You have a staff, rear, communications, drone operators, snipers, scouts, some artillery and mortar crews, etc. – but no infantry.

And for some time, we haven’t been talking about the quality of the people. We’re just talking about people. These numbers are just numbers. They’re divorced from reality. 500,000 [mobilised people] is a realistic figure."

Details: According to Chmut, there has been a lack of communication between the government and the public about the need for mobilisation.

Quote: "In terms of information policy, we are completely losing to the Russians and those who play along with them in this country. Go and watch YouTube channels. Total manipulation, distortion of facts, exaggeration of problems, ignoring positive things [about the situation on the battlefield]. Work [is being done] to split society. And this is all going on amid very deep-seated problems in this country, which unfortunately have not been resolved for years, even decades."

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