Ukraine’s government is reportedly planning to use a pair of commercial recruitment firms to engage in the targeted recruitment of conscripts to make it so that recruits can get jobs which match their skills, some of them behind the frontlines, instead of just being sent to the front indiscriminately.
“Some people are scared, scared to die, scared to shoot, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be involved in other activities,” Ukrainian Security Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov told British media of the new initiative, which is expected to be rolled out as soon as later this week.
Authorities expect the new approach to convince skilled Ukrainians who may want to help the war effort but don’t want to die senselessly at the front to stop hiding from the draft.
“The mobilization will become more flexible, those specialties that are required will be announced, and people will be volunteering for a concrete position. For example, they need welders or mechanics and so on,” Danilov said.
President Zelensky announced a mystery new package of mobilization measures proposed to him by recently appointed businessman-turned defense minister Rustem Umerov, saying last Friday that he would be seeing the plan in the week starting Monday. “The plan will be worked out and all the answers will be there,” Zelensky promised, without elaborating.
20 November 2023, 08:09 GMT
The Russian military has reported on the horrific losses suffered by Ukraine’s army over the course of its disastrous summer counteroffensive, which has failed to break through heavily fortified Russian lines, and which Ukrainian top general Valery Zaluzhny admitted earlier this month had turned into a WWI-style “stalemate.”
Recent estimates by Russian Defense Minister Shoigu placed Ukrainian losses at over 90,000 troops, nearly 600 tanks and some 1,900 armored vehicles since the start of the counteroffensive on June 4, with US intelligence officials saying privately as far back as August that total deaths and injuries had approached half a million.
The lack of bodies has prompted Ukraine’s recruiters to resort to desperate and cruel tactics, including grabbing people off the streets from public places, and reports swirling of growing reliance on female soldiers (including even pregnant women) and men over 40 as younger men are either killed, flee abroad, or hide from authorities inside the country.
Too Little, Too Late?
With the conflict approaching its second year, the new “flexible” or “smart” mobilization measures aren’t expected to attract new troops, as Ukrainians are already aware of the extent of corruption throughout the system, and consequently show an extremely skeptical attitude toward military structures overall.
“Ukrainian politicians say that these recruiting services are supposed to create employees of the army – cooks, drivers, etc., who will be involved in supporting the army’s actions on the front line. But the question is, can’t the military registration and recruitment offices attract such employees without using any agencies?” veteran Russian military analyst Alexey Leonkov asked.
Leonkov told Sputnik that he sees the public-private recruitment scheme as a possible “hidden form of financing” for Ukraine.
“Because recruiting agencies can receive money for these events from various funds, bypassing mandatory inclusion in the budget, for example, of the United States or other countries. In other words, it will be a sort of hidden financing. Whether such a number of cooks and drivers are actually needed is an open question.”
What Ukraine really needs is money, the observer stressed, pointing to debates in Congress about additional funding to Kiev as Washington struggles to plug holes in its own budget.
“So I believe that the recruiting drive is a cover, a hidden form of financing for Ukraine. This will become clear when light is shed on the figures involved, and how much these recruiting agencies actually receive for their activities in Ukraine,” Leonkov summed up.
River Turns to Trickle
Indeed, as Ukraine faces tightening support from its Western patrons, Ukrainian officials’ top concerns include questions not only about where they’re going to get the fresh troops they’re looking for, but also the money and equipment to pay for and equip them. “In the spring the flow of military supplies was a broad river. In the summer it was a stream. Now it is a few drops of tears,” one frustrated Ukrainian source told British media Monday in a piece about the West’s growing Ukraine “fatigue.”
The United States and its allies have now spent over $175 billion providing military and economic support for Ukraine, with funding dropping precipitously in recent months as lawmakers in Washington faced the prospect of a government shutdown, and what officials deemed to be the more immediate need to help Israel in its war in Gaza. The Pentagon indicated recently that it now has less than $1 billion in cash in its war chest for aid to Ukraine, with some US civilian agencies indicating separately that they’re already totally tapped out.