Ukraine is experiencing an increasingly acute shortage of combat-ready personnel on the front, with some units only half-staffed. This limits the ability of the Ukrainian army to fully use its advantages in the development and use of drones, reports the Associated Press.
Ukrainian military officials indicate that the armament and number of their units are barely enough to hold the occupied areas. The deputy commander of the battalion “Da Vinci's Wolves“ with the call sign Afer states: „With the weapons and men we have, we are barely strong enough to hold the sector we are defending.“
According to him, any further advance would result in more casualties. He points out that his unit is approximately half as strong, while his area of responsibility has doubled. To hold the current positions, he says, at least twice as many soldiers are needed, not counting the permanent reserve to compensate for losses.
Rotations are slowing down, soldiers are getting exhausted
Continued mobilization problems, including draft evasion and desertion, are making it difficult to create reserves. According to military analysts, this leads to limited changes along the front line and reduces the ability of the command to shift forces when a tactical advantage arises.
Nick Reynolds of the Royal Institute for Defense Studies points out that Ukraine must be able to quickly introduce additional forces without withdrawing them from other areas. Otherwise, commanders have fewer opportunities to turn a temporary advantage into a sustained operation.
The shortage of personnel makes frequent rotation impossible, leading to exhaustion and increased casualties. Some servicemen spend up to a year at the front without the opportunity to change. The uneven combat capability of the formations further complicates the situation, as weaker units suffer heavier losses and need constant replenishment.
A Ukrainian official summed up the problem to the Associated Press with the words: “There are simply not enough people.“ According to soldiers and analysts, exhaustion, poor organization, insufficient training and the lack of a clear term of service are pushing some recruits to desertion.
Limited offensive actions are possible
Ukraine can still conduct local offensive operations, but according to the AP, their scale is not enough to change the overall balance of forces on the front. Military analyst Pavel Narozhnyi does not consider the shortage of personnel to be an insurmountable obstacle to holding the defensive line.
“We can conduct limited offensive operations, but their scale is relatively small“, Narozhnyi said.Thus, the problem of replenishing the army simultaneously affects rotations, the stability of units, and the ability of the Ukrainian command to use a favorable situation for broader actions.
Sources: unian.net, apnews.com