Ukraine is facing two hard truths: it doesn't have enough soldiers right now and it is having trouble finding volunteers who are ready to fight on the front lines in the future, writes ABC News.
From 2022, Ukraine bans most men of military age from leaving the country. As a result, the number of people wanting to cross the border illegally has increased, according to Ukraine's border service.
Helped by smugglers, some buy fake documents to try to get through official checkpoints. But others try a more desperate route, trying to escape on foot, risking drowning in the river.
Two and a half years of devastating fighting have severely depleted Ukraine's forces, leaving them in some places vastly outnumbered by Russian troops. It is precisely the lack of sufficient manpower that is the reason why the Russian army has been advancing, albeit slowly, in Donbas in recent weeks.
In the first months of the war, a huge wave of Ukrainians volunteered to fight. But that wave is now largely exhausted, and most of those willing to volunteer have already done so. With the war bogged down, with tens of thousands killed and wounded while the lines barely moved, enthusiasm for joining has faded.
In recent months, Ukraine's government has finally taken steps to address labor shortages. In late spring, a law was passed to lower the conscription age and tighten legal rules. Conscription officers now patrol the streets looking for men of military age, checking their papers and sometimes taking away those who are eligible for conscription. This has caused many young men to go into hiding, rarely going out. Others have gone abroad.
ABC News spoke with a young Ukrainian who fled abroad. Introduced as Igor, the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he feels guilty because his parents are in Ukraine under Russian missile fire, but at the same time he does not want to join the army because he knows that if he is seriously injured, he will be a burden for his relatives as a disabled person. His brother came back from the front with a spinal injury and told him not to go to the front. Igor tells that he knows people who were killed 2 days after they went to the front.
For months, Ukraine's government avoided passing the new mobilization law, fearing it would be unpopular and also concerned about keeping its younger men, who are crucial to the country's economic future.
Some Ukrainian men say they worry about being sent to the front lines with inadequate training, fearing they might end up in units that still follow Soviet tactics. The Russian army uses just such – throws cannon fodder for several meters of ground.
„You have to train for many years to be an effective soldier, not just cannon fodder,”, said another man identified as Dennis. He claims that if he goes to the front now, he will be killed “in 5 minutes”. Denis left Ukraine in early 2023 with his family. He said he would be more inclined to join the army if he could choose to be away from the front lines. He said he worries about Ukraine and continues to pay taxes there and make monthly donations to the military. Denis says that it will hardly be useful for his country to defeat Russia if he dies on the front in a few minutes.
Ukraine has started trying to reform its recruitment practices to give people more options to choose their roles, because hardly anyone wants to be a foot soldier on the front line.