For two years now, the West has been promoting Ukrainians standing together in a front against Russia. At the same time, the challenges of the war are unfairly heaped on Ukraine only.
Ilmari Kaishkö Docent of Military Sciences
Ukraine is struggling for the third year already Against a large-scale attack by Russia.
A cycle has been born. Being weaker than Russia, Ukraine needs external support to achieve success. Successes, on the other hand, would ensure the continuity of the support.
The country is now struggling with a manpower shortage and without assurance of the sufficiency of weapons and ammunition. We are in a situation where it is difficult to convince citizens to risk their lives and health in battle.
A cycle has been born. Ukraine needs support to achieve success. Successes, on the other hand, would ensure the continuity of the support.
Ukraine seems to lack a theory about how to win the war. That is why the new business proposal is considered important. Without new troops, Ukraine will not be able to continue the long-consuming war, let alone expel the Russians.
The legal project on business launch has also faced criticism in Ukraine. That’s why we are already asking, is it worth continuing to support the country if the Ukrainians themselves are not ready to defend their country?
Responsibility Of course, Ukraine itself is responsible for the adequacy of the soldiers. It is under discussion referred to for example, in Finland’s Continuation War, in which approximately 16 percent of the population participated. But our history cannot be directly compared to the current situation. Then the realities of the war in Ukraine are not taken into account.
It is Ukraine’s mistake that it did not prepare its citizens for a long war, but we were also guilty of the same wishful thinking.
In the early stages of the war, when the Western countries were still struggling Supporting Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainians lined up to defend their country against a larger invader. Two years later, those who can nail it are still at war. The rest are dead or wounded.
From Finland, it is also too easy to deflect criticism of the movement in Ukraine. It is certainly the fault of the Ukrainian leadership that it has not succeeded in preparing its citizens for a long war. But we and elsewhere in the West were guilty of the same wishful thinking.
Neither can democratic Ukraine wars and ordering their citizens to die in the same way as Russia. Unlike in Russia, Ukrainian citizens and their representatives have real legislative power even during the war. In Ukraine, the use of coercive measures is hindered by civil society’s long-standing concern that those in power use laws to advance their own interests.
Doubts about the business launch act also explains in part corruption, with which front-line service has been avoided. And the willingness to do military service is also affected by age worry from poor education and the level of management.
Ukraine’s demographic structure also weighs in the balance: there are young people fighting in wars littleand the future of Ukraine depends on them.
In Ukraine, it is calculated that every soldier requires maintenance of six to eight taxpayer. The economic realities alone also call into question the feasibility of a large-scale business launch.
From the Ukrainian point of view, we pledge the keys to victory, and we encourage them from security to march to death at the same time.
The majority of people do not want wars in principle. Therefore, if necessary, we must be forced into war.
Service avoiding during the business launch can result in a maximum of two years in prison in Finland. During the Continuation War we have was shot conscientious objectors.
One-time blaming of Ukrainians of the situation is a hypocrite. We then forget that the business launch in Ukraine concerns real people. As in Western countries, too in Ukraine the business launch issue is weighed above all in relation to external support and profit possibilities.
Ukrainian support is decreased. The war in Gaza has taken the West’s attention elsewhere, domestic politics in the United States and Russia hints the spread of the war to other parts of Europe have also bitten the amount of support. At the same time, Russia has in turn increased its war efforts.
We have been encouraging Ukrainians to resist for two years now, but we still haven’t given them enough help to win the war. From the Ukrainian point of view, we pledge the keys to victory in our hands, and we encourage them from security to march to death at the same time.
Do we have the right to demand from others something that we have not done ourselves? We Finns didn’t fight either to the last breath in the winter and continuation war: we gave up when we interpreted the situation as impossible.
Despite the challenges, the resistance in Ukraine continues. But the weakest link in the war can be found outside of Ukraine.
Ilmari Käihkö
The author is a military scientist who is constantly reminded by the Ukrainians that they pay a higher price for the war than we do.