Older Ukraine Troops: 'Can't Handle This' --- Draft isn't producing the quantity, quality of men needed to staff the front line.

"POKROVSK, Ukraine -- During a break from fighting the Russians, an avuncular rifleman recalled how he was going for a haircut one day when he was forced into joining the Ukrainian army.

Three recruitment officials accosted the 47-year-old outside the barber shop in his small hometown, ordered him to get in a car and detained him for two days in a dark room at the local draft center until he signed up. "I got my haircut at the training camp," he said.

Now known by his military call sign Dubok, the former electrical engineer offered to serve as a technician in the rear. 

"But to get that job, you have to pay bribes," he said. 

Instead, he was sent to join an infantry unit depleted by months of hard fighting. His battalion of the 47th Mechanized Brigade is defending the city of Avdiivka against waves of Russian assaults, the biggest current battle in conflict in Ukraine.

"Physically, I can't handle this," he said of front-line combat. "I'm deeply disappointed that I'm no longer 20."

Ukraine needs to rebuild its battered army. The infantry, which bears the brunt of deaths and injuries, is chronically short of men after nearly two years of fighting.

The most highly motivated fighters volunteered early. Those who haven't been killed or wounded say they are exhausted. Ukraine now relies on the draft -- and sometimes on rounding up men -- to replenish the ranks. Meanwhile, Russia can draw on a much larger population.

But a rickety draft system isn't mobilizing Ukraine's manpower effectively, providing the quantity and quality of troops needed, or sharing the burden fairly across Ukrainian society, say many soldiers and military analysts.

A combination of corruption, exemptions and political caution has protected much of Ukraine's urban middle class against having to fight. On the long front line, a disproportionate share of draftees are middle-aged men like Dubok. Often they are from villages and small towns and were too poor to buy their way out.

Veteran soldiers who have been fighting since 2022 -- some since 2014, when events first started in Ukraine's east -- express frustration that new recruits often are past their physical prime.

"The quality of the replacements is not good. They're rural guys aged 43 to 50, sometimes with health problems," said an experienced infantryman fighting near Avdiivka.

Tired fighters note bitterly that when they go on leave in big cities such as Kyiv or Dnipro, they see able-bodied men in their 20s and 30s frequenting gyms, bars and restaurants.

"We don't have full-on mobilization" of society, said a drone operator with the Ukrainian Navy's special forces, known by his call sign Dobro.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that the military is asking him for up to 500,000 more troops. He said no decision has been made, calling the issue "very sensitive." He noted that many soldiers who have been fighting a long time will need to be demobilized at some point.

Stories of men being confronted in the street and detained by draft officials abound in Ukraine. Some incidents have been filmed and put on the internet. "It's unlawful. They can only hand out draft notices, not detain people," said Serhiy Parokhnenko, a lawyer from Dnipro whose clients include men challenging their call-up.

A Defense Ministry official admitted violations by some local recruitment staff but said too many citizens are ignoring their army summons.

Finding willing recruits for the infantry is proving especially difficult in the current phase of attritional conflict. The West's fading support for Ukraine is darkening the nation's mood, and making front-line combat even more daunting.

Growing Republican opposition in Congress has held up U.S. military and financial aid. European Union aid is being impeded by Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban has long had warm relations with Moscow.

Western deliveries of arms and ammunition have slowed sharply. Russia has regained a clear advantage in artillery firepower, where Ukraine had parity earlier this year.

About 800,000 people serve in Ukraine's armed forces, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said recently. Casualties in the conflict are a tightly held secret, but full hospitals and graveyards around Ukraine show the high price the country is paying.

On paper, Ukraine still has a large reserve of potential manpower, with several million male residents in their 20s and 30s who have yet to fight. The military hasn't drafted men under the age of 27 so far, although Parliament has authorized a lower age limit of 25. Groups exempt from the draft include fathers of several children, those who care for the disabled and workers in key sectors.

Ukraine's government had hoped that this summer's counteroffensive would go a long way toward winning the conflict -- and obviate the need for a politically unpopular push to draft more young people in Kyiv.

Instead, Ukrainian assault troops made few dents in Russia's heavily fortified lines. Casualties compounded the infantry's losses.

"Sad news from the front is discouraging citizens from joining," said Dobro. Ukrainian army commanders who use costly Soviet-style tactics of frontal assaults are adding to people's fear of being drafted, he said.

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Some Pay Bribes to Avoid Service

An unknown number of Ukrainians have left the country to avoid the draft, paying bribes so they can cross the border.

Ukraine's laws ban most men age 18 to 60 from traveling abroad.

Earlier this year, a 30-year-old architect from Odesa paid a bribe of about $7,600, more than half of his savings, to a doctor for a medical certificate exempting him from the Ukrainian draft. He then packed his possessions into his car and drove into Moldova.

"I'm supportive of Ukraine. It's a great country, with great people," he said. "But I don't want to die."

Now living in southern Europe, he said some of his friendships in Ukraine have frayed because of his decision. Other friends have told him he is lucky to be abroad. He said he donates money to support friends who are fighting.

The biggest corruption problem is at draft offices. Reports of officials taking bribes to let men off became so widespread that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired all 24 of the country's regional recruitment chiefs in August. But the government hasn't announced a more thorough overhaul of recruitment, despite months of talking about the need for changes." [1]

Zelensky and his friends are busy stealing Ukraine's riches. They have no time to organize anything else. 

 

1. World News: Older Ukraine Troops: 'Can't Handle This' --- Draft isn't producing the quantity, quality of men needed to staff the front line. Walker, Marcus; Sivorka, Ievgeniia.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Dec 2023: A.9.