The kyiv army lacks men in the East. While Ukrainian forces are becoming more entangled every day in the Donetsk oblast, Volodymyr Zelensky’s executive announced that he would soon trigger the mobilization of 160,000 new people to replenish the ranks of his army. An announcement made by the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council to deputies, according to a video of his speech published by a parliamentarian.
This latest wave of mobilization will be organized over the next three months, a period for which Ukraine has just extended martial law and mobilization, according to an AFP source within the security sector. Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, “a total of 1.050 million citizens have been enlisted,” said Oleksandr Lytvynenko speaking to elected officials behind closed doors. This new arrival of recruits will make it possible to replenish the ranks of the army by 85%, he continued.
A very reduced Ukrainian army
Because the losses suffered since the start of the war have been very heavy. At the end of February, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. This figure does not include missing soldiers, whose number is estimated at several tens of thousands. The number of wounded, generally a multiple of those killed in an armed conflict, has never been revealed. The Ukrainian army is struggling to replenish its ranks after almost three years of invasion while the situation on the front is very difficult and the Russian army has been taking the initiative for about a year.
By October 27, the Russian forces, which had recently benefited from North Korean support, had gained more ground than during the months of August and September (477 and 459 km2), already marked by significant movements of the line. head-on, particularly in eastern Ukraine around the city of Pokrovsk.
Ordinarily, the Ukrainian authorities do not reveal to the public the strength of the armed forces or mobilization plans and communicate very little on military losses. Mobilization is a heated subject, the enlistment system is considered unfair by many Ukrainians and has been at the center of a number of corruption scandals.
In October 2024, the UN estimated the population of Ukraine at 35 million inhabitants, compared to 43 million at the start of the war in 2022 – 6.7 million people notably fled the country – and 45 million in 2014, year in which Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. The Ukrainian Parliament voted on Tuesday for a new 90-day extension of martial law and general mobilization, which will last from the beginning of November to the beginning of February.