Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on April 2 that eliminated the need for physical fitness to enter military service and reduced the minimum age for military conscription from 27 to 25 years old. These desperate measures aim to overcome the shortage of soldiers, but as high-ranking Ukrainian officers admitted to POLITICO, the military situation is bleak, especially as the summer approaches when Russia is expected to launch a major offensive.
“Zelensky signed a law on mobilisation from the age of 25. For 11 months, the draft law was voted on by the Parliament of Ukraine, but did not enter into force because it was not signed,” wrote Ukrainian deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko on social media, adding: “Zelensky signed a law eliminating the status of ‘physical fitness [for military service]’.”
According to Goncharenko, men declared partially fit for military service must undergo a second medical examination within nine months.
The Ukrainian president approved a law reducing the minimum age for military recruitment from 27 to 25 and established a virtual recruitment office through which summons for recruitment can be sent electronically. Ukraine has been under martial law since February 24, 2022. While the law is in effect, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.
Shortages of soldiers at the front, caused mostly by injury and death in combat with Russian forces or, to a lesser extent, by surrender, has led Ukraine to intensify forced conscriptions, including of people with physical disabilities and women. A bill is also being discussed that aims to allow prisoners in Ukraine to obtain parole to reinforce the front line.
All this points to Ukraine’s desperate situation. In fact, according to POLITICO, citing high-ranking Ukrainian military officials who served under former General Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s front will collapse if the Russian Army makes a concentrated attack in one place.
“The officers said there’s a great risk of the front lines collapsing wherever Russian generals decide to focus their offensive,” the article points out.
“Moreover, thanks to a much greater weight in numbers and the guided aerial bombs that have been smashing Ukrainian positions for weeks now, Russia will likely be able to penetrate the front line and to crash it in some parts.”
One of the Ukrainian officials added that the West will no longer help Kiev deal with the Russian offensive.
“There’s nothing that can help Ukraine now because there are no serious technologies able to compensate Ukraine for the large mass of troops Russia is likely to hurl at us. We don’t have those technologies, and the West doesn’t have them as well in sufficient numbers,” one of the top-ranking military sources told POLITICO.
Another officer expressing concern said:
“We don’t only have a military crisis — we have a political one. While Ukraine shies away from a big draft, Russia is now gathering resources and will be ready to launch a big attack around August, and maybe sooner.”
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, at a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces, said on April 2 that since January, the Ukrainian military has suffered more than 80,000 casualties and lost more than 14,000 units of various equipment, including more than 1,200 tanks and other armoured vehicles. He also noted that the Ukrainians, after the failure of last year’s counteroffensive, are trying, unsuccessfully, to consolidate themselves in certain positions while the Russian military continues to push the Ukrainian Army to the west.
Zelensky recently warned the US that unless the stalled multibillion-dollar package for military equipment, including 155-millimetre artillery shells, Patriot air-defence systems and drones, is approved soon, the Ukrainian military will have to “go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps” and that some major cities could be at risk of falling, the most obvious being Odessa and Kharkov.
“But the sad truth is that even if the package is approved by the US Congress, a massive resupply may not be enough to prevent a major battlefield upset,” POLITICO lamented. “And such a setback, especially in the middle of election campaigns in America and Europe, could very well revive Western pressure for negotiations that would obviously favour Russia.”
In the current conflict, it is impossible to resupply Ukraine effectively as Russian industry has steamrolled the West to embarrassing proportions, all whilst the Ukrainian military continues to fight using mostly unmotivated conscripts since the professional soldiers are mostly dead or wounded. By Zelensky lowering the conscription age and the need for physical fitness, he once again demonstrates that Ukraine is in a position where victory is impossible, posing the question of why he continues a war that will only result in the loss of more territory and dead Ukrainians.
it’s already collapsing as we speak, those nazis who surrender now still have a chance to wake up tomorrow, but you must surrender now
collapsing ? haha. ukraine just got fresh artillery in high numbers, and contrary to the ru fake news here, it is russia that has such high losses, hence its need to come up with new wave of mobilization ( see decree signed by pootin at 31th march 2024) not ukraine. moreover fact is by the current speed ru will take 57 years to fully occupy ukraine. see: https://cuts.top/stmsi424
i will debunk your post: yes collapsing, and it’s russophobic magazine politico who is saying it. your ” fresh artillery (which is no wonderweapon to begin with) in high numbers” has been destroyed last night. the losses is 1 ru for 10 nazis. and the mobilization you are talking about is the annual mobilization , a routine since the 90ies. the speed is relative, due to collapse of the nazi defense lines, the speed will grow exponentially.
and since the terror attack in crocus , more than 100k reservists have ‘voluntarily’ asked to be deployed ‘in order to kill nazi terrorists’ asap. they were not mobilized. so f you crack hoe teresa s-lut
yea, we’re all well aware of your ‘ghost of kiev’ delusions and fantasies. …. spare us.
someone wished upon a star and son of a gun but there you are.
fresh artillery you say? well good, that means they can continue dying like the stupid goyim that they are, as intended.
both sides have high losses, since literally the point of the conflict is to kill as many people on all sides. if ukrainians weren’t the soulles low iq filth that they are, none of this would have had to happen.
the endgame is all russian speaking oblasts return to rf. no need to get excited in the comment section. the only reason the war is prolonged is for profits of rheinmetall and reducing population.
întrebare : cati bani au dat evreii ajunsi in bucurești sa iasa din ua? a, macar ceausescu ii vindea pe sasi la vedere
care ar fi mobolizarea personala? ce autodeterminare sa ai sa lupti pt ua? ce determinare sa ai sa lupti pt claun?
for zelensky and the jews in ny, killing thé whites is the goal.
maybe it’ll collapse on their heads and put them out of their misery.
not just senior officers: selensky is building fortifications around kyiv and odessa.
look at a map and think about what that tells us about his confidence into his army holding the lines.
bonus question: look at the map again and think about how much dope one must smoke to seriously believe that a couple of trenches will stop an enemy who made it all the way from the russian border to kyiv and odessa.