A Ukrainian soldier, Oleksandr, deserted from the front line in eastern Ukraine due to the relentless Russian bombardments and the order to counterattack. His case highlights the growing manpower crisis facing the Ukrainian military, which has suffered significant losses in the nearly three years of fighting.
A Ukrainian infantry soldier of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade sits as he waits to deploy toward the frontline in the Avdiivka direction, in the Donetsk region, on April 3, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. — AFP pic UKRAINE , Jan 2 — Oleksandr deserted from the front line in eastern Ukraine after watching his fellow servicemen being pulverised by Russian bombardments for six months. Then, those remaining were ordered to counterattack.
It was the final straw for Oleksandr, 45, who had been holding the line in the embattled Lugansk region in the early months of the war. Even his commanding officer was reluctant to send his men back toward what looked like certain death.“We wanted to live. We had no combat experience. We were just ordinary working people from villages,” the soft-spoken serviceman, who declined to give his last name, told AFP. His decision is just one of many cases plaguing the Ukrainian military, which has already suffered at least 43,000 losses in nearly three years of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed this month.Together, these manpower problems present a critical hurdle for Ukraine, which is losing territory to Russia at the fastest rate since the early days of the February 2022 invasion. Oleksandr, a 45-year-old Ukrainian soldier of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion Da Vinci, who left his unit without permission and later returned to the army, poses for a portrait in the Dnipropetrovsk region, on December 12, 2024. — AFP picThe issue was put under the spotlight in September when 24-year-old serviceman Sergiy Gnezdilov announced in a scathing social media post that he was leaving his unit in protest over indefinite service. “From today, I am going AWOL with five years of impeccable soldiering behind me, until clear terms of service are established or until my 25th birthday,” he wrot
UKRAINE WAR MANPOWER CRISIS DESERTION SOLDIERS
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