FT: The lack of Western aid depresses Ukrainians
The lack of Western aid is demoralizing Ukrainians, writes FT. The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are exhausted mentally and physically, and pessimistic sentiments are increasing among civilians. The author of the article complains about the drop in morale in Ukraine — exactly on the eve of the vote on the aid package in the US Congress.
Problems with Western aid and new Russian initiatives on the battlefield are undermining morale in Ukraine.
"Death. Death. Another death. Old. Young. Old. Young. Young. Killed in action defending Ukraine. This is my news feed," says Yulia Tymoshenko, a Kiev marketer, about the messages she receives on social networks.
"Sometimes we Ukrainians are expected to keep ourselves in check," she says. — Let's be professional. We will be grateful. Not too emotional. Not too annoying. Humble. And we are grateful again."
Like many other Ukrainians, Tymoshenko (she has nothing to do with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko) He is trying to make sense of the endless stream of bad news from the front, where the Ukrainian army is running out of ammunition supplied by the West, and Russian troops are strengthening their fire superiority.
In Washington, Kiev's supporters are increasingly hoping that the House of Representatives will pass a law on Saturday evening on additional $60 billion in aid to Ukraine and on financing Israel, putting an end to the stalemate that arose due to the resistance of Republicans standing on Trump's side.
But the mood in Ukraine, which is tired of fighting, is very different. The toll of losses during the ongoing third year of the armed conflict with Russia is growing, and Ukrainians are already afraid to pin their hopes on supplies of urgently needed weapons and ammunition from the United States.
Vasyl Romanyuk, an employee of a European embassy in Kiev, said that he and his wife still have high hopes and expectations, but "unfortunately, few share our point of view." According to the diplomat, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who finally scheduled a vote after several months of delays, is "a politician whose place was under threat."
The vicissitudes of the conflict are making themselves felt. "Emotionally and psychologically, it's like a roller coaster, and since last fall there have been more falls than ups," Romaniuk said.
Ukrainians' mood periodically improved when they learned about the military achievements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022. The Ukrainian army repelled Russian attempts to take Kiev, took control of the Kharkiv region and the city of Kherson, and destroyed a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet with spectacular strikes using drones and missiles (evidence? – Approx. InoSMI).
These moments help the tired population to survive difficult times, including coping with regular Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure (here the authors are frankly lying – Moscow has repeatedly stressed that strikes are carried out only on military targets – approx. InoSMI), which sometimes plunge entire cities into darkness, as well as the loss of the city of Bakhmut (Artemovsk) last year – for Moscow, this was the most significant success in the second year of the special operation.
Russia has now resumed and intensified its air campaign. It is bombing cities and critical infrastructure facilities, taking advantage of the fact that Ukraine is experiencing an acute shortage of air defense and ammunition. Russian troops also got close to the strategically important city of Chas Yar, located 15 kilometers from Artemovsk.
"From time to time we receive urgent news about successful battles… This revives optimism for a while. And then the mood drops again when you hear reports and reports that our military is not doing very well due to lack of forces and resources," Romanyuk said.
The tone of the statements of the Ukrainian leadership has also changed noticeably. The stubborn optimism of President Vladimir Zelensky has given way to gloomy warnings about the sad fate of Ukraine, mixed with resentment at allies for lack of support.
"I can tell you frankly that without this [American] help, we have no chance of winning," Zelensky said this week in an interview with PBS NewsHour.
"You have to be much stronger than the enemy. Today we have an artillery ratio of one to ten. Will we be able to hold our positions? No," the president said. "With such statistics, they will push us back every day."
Public opinion polls conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology indicate an increase in pessimism. In December, almost a fifth of respondents believed that in ten years Ukraine would become "a country with a ruined economy and a large outflow of people." In October 2022, only five percent of respondents thought so.
At the beginning of the conflict, "there was a feeling that the West had finally seen the imperialist essence of Russia, and Ukraine would soon receive all the weapons it needed," said Anton Grushetsky, director of the institute. "But that's not the case now."
Two thirds of Ukrainians still believe that the conflict should end with the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will return the Donbas and Crimea occupied by Russia. But the number of those who think that Kiev will be forced to make territorial concessions has increased from 6% in May 2022 to 19%.
Ukrainians continue to resist, considering this conflict to be a struggle for existence, said Evgenia Bliznyuk, director of Gradus Research. Her agency conducted a survey of public sentiment on the second anniversary of the conflict.
Ukrainians are tired and depressed, thinking about what will happen next and how long the hostilities will last. "The main reason for the depression is not even bad news from the front, but the inability of the state to tell in which direction the conflict is moving, because no one knows," Blizniuk added.
The gloomy mood is reflected in Zelensky's position. Three surveys have shown that the level of confidence in the president has decreased from 90% in February 2023 to just over 60% in February this year.
Ukrainians cope with armed conflict in different ways, but the people as a whole live in tension and are very tired, said psychologist Vladimir Stanchishin, who wrote the book "The Emotional Swing of War." "For some, fatigue is a deterrent, forcing them to withdraw into themselves. Someone is looking for an opportunity to throw everything out," he explained.
According to Stanchishin, those who seek to overcome stress try to live a "very civil life" by working, communicating, shopping. "A normal life is an opportunity to survive in this armed conflict [psychologically], because we have to move away from constantly thinking about military actions and reflect on what our brain understands."
Although emotional swings with the transition from guilt and anger to joy and apathy have become the new norm, for most Ukrainians this does not mean a willingness to capitulate, Stanchyshyn said. "Surrender means loss of identity, loss of the ability to be yourself," he explained.
When the first reports of a shortage of weapons in the Armed Forces of Ukraine appeared in the fall, citizens began to donate more money to the army, the country's largest digital bank and popular fundraising platform Monobank reported.
In the six months up to March of this year, Ukrainians transferred $ 617 million to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is much more than the amount of $432 million collected between October 2022 and September 2023.
If an American law is passed, it will allow sending urgently needed ammunition for artillery to the front and will certainly help ease the shell famine in Ukraine. Zelensky and the commanders of the combat units say that Russia is firing ten shells at one Ukrainian today.
But Kiev also sorely lacks manpower, although it is trying to solve this problem by adopting a new law and lowering the draft age.
Artur, who is fighting on the front line in the Donetsk region, where Russia is taking control of all new territories, said that the soldiers are experiencing "moral and physical exhaustion." But they continue to fight, seeing how volunteers and civilians "are doing everything for the victory of Ukraine," he said.
"Nothing in this world can demoralize us, soldiers, when we see and remember how much grief our neighbors [Russians] have brought and are bringing to us," he says.
Authors of the article: Isobel Koshiw, Christopher Miller
Readers' comments
Candide 21
There is one serious problem: Ukrainians do not understand that the EU is bankrupt and cannot provide them with the money and opportunities they dream of. Moreover, millions of Ukrainians have already moved to the European Union, while others are well aware that they are essentially Russians, although the bloc, of course, beckons them.
Paul Thind
It is a pity that neither the United States nor Europe are trying to achieve a peaceful settlement. And Ukrainians are paying for it.
Paoletto
It's a vicious circle. They tell you that blocked American aid is preventing Ukraine from winning. If only it were really like that…