World News

2290 readers

81 users here now

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml

sovietsnake@lemmygrad.ml

ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml

Ukraine lacks soldiers to stop Russia (elpais.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/worldnews@lemmygrad.ml

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry admits that Kiev's main problem now is not weapons, but a lack of people; no one wants to join the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and soon they will have no one to fight with.

"The problem now is not in weapons, but in people. No one wants to join the army. The brigades tell us that they cannot carry out rotation, that they are exhausted. Soon there will be no people to fight," the head of the mission that arrived from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in the village of Ulakly to inspect the units told the newspaper.

Let us recall that in these weeks in Ukraine they began a total mobilization, grabbing men at markets, concerts, clubs, etc., in order to stop the collapse of the front.

top 14 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"The problem now"

They have been in desperation draft mode for a while now, we always knew the problem was people. Anyone with sense was saying this like a month into the conflict. Getting western powers to shovel their old equipment to them was never an issue as it just let the weapons manufacturers sell newer ordnance to said powers.

Not only do they lack people, they need more than just warm bodies that they can shove a rifle at and point them in a direction. Armies aren't lining up and charging at each other anymore. Modern warfare isn't just which side has more troops, you need trained and experienced soldiers that have a willingness to fight and know how to use their equipment. Ukraine has none of those.

[–] Idliketothinkimsmart@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The cool thing about being a communist in relation to world events is you get proven right sooner or later

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago

tankies and the burden of being right all the time

[–] SinoSoviet_Drip@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago

That's the power of dialectical materialism!

[–] Kirbywithwhip1987@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How much longer do y'all think this will go? I've heard until the end of this year but I think that's soon, maybe it ends next year?

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I can't see how it can go past next year, but realistically it could end this year as well. Now that the collapse of the army started, the pace of events is going to accelerate dramatically. There's going to be an inflection point where there just aren't enough experienced and motivated people to hold things together, and we might be on the cusp of it already. The AFU isn't able to hold positions, they have mass desertion, and everybody knows the war is lost at this point.

[–] Kirbywithwhip1987@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yea I'm waiting for it since I've been hearing about collapse for months and yet somehow they're still clinging and trying to extend this for some reason. Idk how they even function at this point.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The answer is not well, and one of the most visible aspects is how much faster Russia is able to take towns now. It used to take many months for the Russian army to take a single town, and they'd have to shell the shit out of it first. Now, Russia is taking multiple towns on weekly basis, and mostly intact because the units defending them simply retreat, and they no longer have sufficient ammo to put up much of a resistance when they don't. So, the pace of events is very much accelerating. Once Ukraine loses Pokrovsk and Chasov Yar, they're basically going to lose all of Donbas, and that could be the basis for surrender.

[–] sinovictorchan@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You mean that moral for Kyiv soldiers are declining and that Ukrainians are willing to support Russians more than the Euromaiden coup government or Zelensky who did not keep his election promise?

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago

shocking isn't it

[–] mamotromico@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I know I’m not as well read on the subject as you are Yogthos, but my impression is that both Russia and the west end up with some benefits to extend this as much as possible, so I’d expect it to go to the next year easily, unless it’s a major collapse on the front (or mass desertion).

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

From Russian perspective, they mainly don't want to do big arrow offensives because they are very costly. However, there's not much benefit for Russia to drag this out indefinitely. We can also see that Russian army is starting to push more aggressively in the past few months as the resistance weakens. I imagine one thing Russia would like to avoid would be to end up in a direct conflict with NATO, and the longer the war goes the more chances of that it could happen at some point.

From western perspective, there is a lot of incentive to keep this going politically. At the very least, Ukraine can't collapse before the election in the US happens. However, it looks like the west is starting to run dry of the support it's able to provide in material terms. On top of that, there's now a brewing war between Iran and Israel which is already diverting resources from Ukraine.

Personally, I can't see how Ukraine holds out for another year here. The manpower shortage is their biggest problem, and the west can't fix that short of putting boots on the ground. Yet, even if that could somehow happen, then there's still the issue with shortage of weapons and ammunition.

[–] mamotromico@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

I see, thank you for the insights :D

[–] Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

Here it comes, they're going to start asking for more "volunteers"