Ukrainians will be drafted to the Defense Forces again: how many will fight
29 October 19:30The Ukrainian Defense Forces are planning to draft another 160,000 people. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Lytvynenko said this during a speech in the Verkhovna Rada on October 29, [Komersant] reports.
“In total, 1 million 50 thousand citizens were drafted into the defense forces. It is planned to draft another 160 thousand people. This will make it possible to staff the units by up to 85%,” the NSDC Secretary said.
It should be noted that on October 29, the Verkhovna Rada supported the laws extending mobilization and martial law until February 7, 2025. This decision was supported by 305 MPs.
Meanwhile, foreign media, including The Wall Street Journal, have recently reported that tensions in Ukrainian society are growing due to mobilization.
“The army is facing difficulties in recruiting new soldiers while prominent figures, including prosecutors, evade the draft with fake disabilities,” the media outlet writes.
They note that the problem was exacerbated by the 2023 counteroffensive, “in which thousands of soldiers were sacrificed for minimal gain.” And also the Kursk operation, which stretched the already exhausted units of the Armed Forces. Against this background, desertion in the army and soldiers’ dissatisfaction with the lack of prospects for demobilization are on the rise.
“The shortage of people is a critical problem that the West will not be able to solve with its supplies, as it is unlikely that Western troops will be sent,” experts say.