Ukraine is experiencing an increasingly acute shortage of combat-ready personnel at the front, despite the development of drone technology. Some units are operating with only half the required number of personnel, and the available forces and weapons are mainly enough to hold their current positions, the AP agency reports.
“There simply are not enough forces to fully utilize the battlefield advantages provided by drone innovations“, the publication states.
Units stay on the front line longer
The shortage of servicemen limits rotations and the ability to replace exhausted units in a timely manner. The deputy commander of the battalion “Da Vinci's Wolves“ with the call sign “Affaire“ states that some soldiers spend up to a year on the front line without sufficient opportunities for rest.
“Due to the shortage of recruits, some soldiers spend up to a year on the front line without the opportunity for rotation“, says “Afer“.He says his unit has about half the required personnel, while its area of responsibility has doubled. To maintain its current positions, at least twice as many personnel would be needed, not including the permanent reserve to replace losses.
Nick Reynolds of the Royal United Services Institute points out that Ukraine needs to be able to quickly send additional forces to a sector without withdrawing them from another part of the front. Otherwise, commanders have fewer opportunities to turn a temporary advantage into a sustained operation.
“The shortage of personnel makes it impossible to rotate units frequently enough, which leads to fatigue and, accordingly, more casualties“, says Reynolds.
Mobilization and desertion compound the problem
Military experts attribute the difficulties to long-standing problems with mobilization, including draft evasion and desertion. The uneven combat capability of the units further burdens weaker formations. They suffer heavier losses, which requires constant replenishment and creates a vicious circle.
A representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense sums up the situation laconically: “There are simply not enough people“. The department is considering changes in the mobilization, training and organization of the army, but the effect of such reforms would not be immediate.
Only limited offensives are possible
According to the AP, Ukrainian forces can take local offensive actions, but they are not enough to change the overall balance of forces on the front, despite the losses of the Russian army.
Military analyst Pavlo Narozhnyi does not consider the shortage of personnel an insurmountable obstacle to the defense, but defines the possibilities for attack as limited.
„We can conduct limited offensive operations, but their scale is relatively small“, Narozhnyi said.Thus, the shortage of soldiers affects both the endurance of Ukrainian units, their ability to react to changes on the front and the ability to use their technological advantage to larger-scale operations.
Sources: apnews.com, news.bg