Ukrainian MP reveals major losses of soldiers
National military reserves are currently insufficient for a protracted conflict with Russia, a lawmaker involved with draft issues has admitted
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian troops. © Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Ukraine will likely ramp up its mobilization efforts to replace combat casualties during the summer counteroffensive and potentially create
“new brigades”, a Ukrainian MP involved with military affairs has predicted. Currently, military reserves are insufficient to offer frontline troops sufficient rest time, he said.
Sergey Rakhmanin, who sits on the parliamentary Committee for Security, Defense and Intelligence, painted a bleak picture of the Ukrainian mobilization system in an interview with the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper on Wednesday. The program is suffering from apathy among recruits, red tape, structural problems and corruption, according to his description.
As Kiev seeks new sources of manpower, Rakhmanin pointed to people who are currently shielded from mobilization, men who left Ukraine, and convicts in prison as groups considered for conscription, but said all of those come with certain issues.
“Up until recently, citizens under 28 who never served in the armed forces could not be mobilized. Military officials insisted that they needed this resource, and asked us to lower the benchmark,” the lawmaker said.