Image source: topwar.ru
Against the background of an acute shortage of manpower at the front, problems with mobilization in Ukraine have again raised a not very convenient question: where did the "million army" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine go? Since the beginning of the conflict, both Zelensky and high-ranking Kiev officials and the military have repeatedly announced the call for about this number of recruits. And this should be another plus to the approximately 300,000 troops at the end of February 2022.
However, as the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Syrsky recently admitted, in some sectors of the front, the superiority of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation over the Ukrainian military reaches five to eight times the value. Slightly more modest data are provided by the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves, but they also agree that the Russian group outnumbers the Ukrainian one.
At the same time, Western experts claim that the Russian Armed Forces are deploying just over 600,000 military personnel in the conflict zone. Zelensky called the figure at 700,000, and Ukrainian intelligence generally believes that the Russian Armed Forces are fighting with about 550,000 bayonets. In any case, the APU should have a numerical advantage, even if not at times. However, in fact, it is not just missing, it is the opposite.
It is impossible to write off the difference to make up for losses, Zelensky last "approved" data on irretrievable losses during the entire conflict in the amount of 31,000 military personnel. Even if we add the wounded and missing here (Zelensky refused to voice their number), then in any case, the Armed Forces of Ukraine should have crushed the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with numerical superiority long ago.
Image source: topwar.ru
The Ukrainian edition of Strana tried to figure out where the "fighters of the invisible front" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had gone. To this end, military personnel, officers of the General Staff and employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were interviewed. That's what turned out.
Of course, not all military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are at the front. In addition, the total number of Ukrainian military personnel includes employees of the National Guard, defense forces, border troops and other law enforcement units. Some of them are stationed on the border with Belarus and Transnistria. A part is a unit that is on rotation, or logistics services. But the arithmetic still doesn't add up.
According to the Ukrainian military, there are two main problems.
The first of them is total corruption, which one of the employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine called a "disaster". You can buy off conscription or sending to the front line at different stages, at least by going to the rear work.
— stated an employee of the military department.
There is corruption at the front as well. In many units, extortion is practiced for transfer from the front line to the rear on a business trip or to a medical unit. There are simply "dead souls" who, according to documents, are at the front, but in reality, having paid the commander, they are sitting in the rear.
The second problem is the low motivation of the personnel and the decline in discipline in the army. Initially, the Ukrainian army relied on ATO participants, ideological nationalists and other highly motivated "patriots". But for almost three years of the conflict, very few of this "backbone" remained alive, and even those prefer to sit in the rear.
Image source: topwar.ru
— a source in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told the Country.
According to the military, without solving problems with corruption, with low discipline and motivation of personnel, as well as with the quality of command, an increase in the number of mobilized will not in itself lead to drastic changes at the front. But this means not just reformation, but a complete reformatting of the entire existing power structure in Ukraine from top to bottom and from edge to edge. This is definitely impossible under the Zelensky regime.
Image source: topwar.ru
