Ukraine wants Donald Trump’s support, but has suffered thousands of casualties and desertions as it holds the line against Russia.
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Personnel problems are coming to the fore as Ukraine struggles to slow Russia’s advance. | Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
February 4, 2025 4:41 am CET
KYIV — Anastasia, a Ukrainian combat medic, volunteered to join the army in 2022. She had no military or medical experience but wanted to help wounded Ukrainian soldiers in rear hospitals and planned to stay far from combat.
Last fall, while on medical leave, she discovered that army command had transferred her to one of the hottest spots of Russia’s war against Ukraine, near Kurakhove in the eastern Donetsk region.
“I did not even have basic military training by the time I arrived. My former command forged my documents,” said Anastasia, who asked to be identified only by her first name. Military officials denied that such a thing could happen.
Anastasia said her new comrades are helping her adapt: “Already in this new brigade, drivers [have] taught me how to assemble a gun and [have] helped me a lot.”
Her story is being repeated across Ukraine as the country’s military struggles to fill personnel shortages caused by the fight against Russia’s relentless — slow but bloody — advance in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi issued an order on Jan. 11 to transfer over 5,000 air force personnel to the ground forces. That raised alarms Ukraine was sacrificing highly trained specialists it will not be able to replace to join frontline fighting.
Syrskyi insisted, however, that he won’t transfer “irreplaceable” personnel.
The issue is being noticed in Washington.
“The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they are running out of money, [it] is that they are running out of Ukrainians,” U.S. `Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during his confirmation hearing.
The situation is straining the military, with soaring numbers of ill-trained and exhausted soldiers going AWOL, difficulty in recruiting new troops and arrests of respected and popular combat officers.
That’s turning into a political problem for Kyiv as it tries to demonstrate to U.S. President Donald Trump that it makes sense to continue backing Ukraine as he presses for a swift end to the war.
Leadership issues
Frontline problems are raising questions about the quality of Ukraine’s military command, which is trying to transition from a rigid Soviet-style force to one based on Western principles while fighting an existential war.
“Modern warfare is rapidly evolving. It is technical, complex and unpredictable. It demands officers who are entrepreneurial [and] willing to take risks, [who can] argue a case and can deal with soldiers who may be more skilled than they are,” said Glen Grant, a former British Army officer and defense expert with the Baltic Security Foundation monitoring Ukraine’s military reforms over the past decade.
“Weak commanders hate these people and either try to silence them by bureaucracy and bullying or remove them altogether. Inspection teams are the worst evil for the army as they want Soviet-style conformity, and that will lose [Ukraine] the war,” he added.
Anastasia confirmed his words.
“Under Syrskyi’s command, the staff turned into a group of loyalists. With many of the commanders changed for Syrskyi’s people, who have little care and want to report only victories to the higher staff no matter how many lives it costs,” she said.
The press service of Ukraine’s General Staff, which oversees the operational management of the armed forces, denied the accusations in a response to POLITICO.
“One of the fundamental principles is the value of the life of personnel, which ensures the long-term combat readiness and stability of the collective,” the email said.
Even though higher command refused to publicly discuss any problems the Ukrainian army faces, as it could harm operations against Russia, it admitted there are cases of desertion — something it said is being addressed.
“It requires a systemic approach that covers both managerial and psychological aspects,” the General Staff said. Kyiv aims to strengthen communication and trust between the command and soldiers, as well as training, medical and psychological support for its troops.
Bloody battlefield
The cracks appearing in the Ukrainian military are caused by the massive scale of the bloodshed.
In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv has lost more than 43,000 soldiers killed in action with more than 370,000 wounded in almost three years of fighting.
The Kremlin does not reveal casualties, but Syrskyi estimated that in 2024 alone Russia lost 150,000 soldiers killed and more than 400,000 wounded. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia has lost 818,740 troops killed or wounded since the full-scale war began.
Even though Syrskyi said Russia’s losses were “many times higher” than Ukraine’s, the impact is felt on the front.
“As in any conflict lasting more than a year, the longer the war continues, the fewer professional soldiers remain on the front lines. At the same time, there is a growing need to recruit and train people from civilian life who have no previous military experience,” said Olena Tregub, executive director of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission and a member of the Public Anti-Corruption Commission under the Ministry of Defense.
“These people are often psychologically and physically unprepared for combat, and their adaptation takes time. This is an inevitable challenge that Ukraine faced — as would any other country that would find itself in such a protracted war,” she added.
Personnel problems are coming to the fore as Ukraine struggles to slow Russia’s advance. Since May the Kremlin has retaken part of the Kharkiv region liberated by Ukraine in 2022, and has seized some 2,800 square kilometers of land — about 0.4 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
The Russians are now closing their grip on the eastern logistical hub of Pokrovsk — leading to more recriminations against high command.
“The main reason for the disaster in the Pokrovsk direction is the higher command, which sets unrealistic tasks for the units. Generals who do not understand the capabilities of the units and are not oriented in the situation on the front line,” said Serhii Filimonov, commander of the Da Vinci Wolves separate battalion of the Ukrainian army, in a December post on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the Russians are facing their own problems in trying to push Ukraine out of the Kursk salient with the help of North Korean soldiers. Despite weeks of relentless assaults that have decimated the Koreans, the Ukrainians are hanging on.
Need for change
Calls for change are growing.
“On paper, there are a lot of people on the front line, a lot of weapons, a lot of equipment, and they give them ammunition — and the front is falling apart. Not because people are not fighting, but because there is chaos in command,” Taras Chmut, a prominent Ukrainian military expert and head of the Come Back Alive foundation helping the Ukrainian army, told the Ukrainska Pravda paper in December.
Recently, Ukrainian security services arrested two Ukrainian army generals on suspicion of “inadequate protection of the Kharkiv region” during a Russian offensive last year. The former commander of the 155th brigade was also arrested for allegedly concealing desertions during training in France.
Syrskyi could be called as a witness.
Some Ukrainian MPs claim the arrests are politically motivated.
“Such actions not only undermine confidence in the army during war but also pose direct threats to the country’s defense capabilities. This negatively affects both the morale of the military and public trust, weakening national unity at a crucial moment in the struggle for independence,” Roman Kostenko, a military veteran and an opposition Ukrainian MP who is secretary of the defense committee in the Ukrainian parliament, said in a statement.
There is also criticism of how the military is incorporating new recruits into the army. Some feel that new soldiers should be blended with veteran units to teach them how to survive on the battlefield. There are complaints that high command is instead placing raw recruits into new brigades and then throwing the inexperienced units into the hottest fighting.
That has led to battlefield failures, said Filimonov, the commander.
“If a soldier gets into a unit where they … feel that command knows what to do, the soldier tries to stay there at all costs. If command sends him to a position right after training in Europe or after basic military training in Ukraine without additional work with him, he either dies or goes AWOL,” Filimonov said.
Despite mounting problems, the Ukrainian army is continuing to reform. It is moving to a more modern Western-style structure which increases the effectiveness of command and also clears a lot of bureaucracy and speeds up decisions by digitalizing key processes, said Tregub, the anti-corruption official.
Anastasia wants to stay on in her new posting despite complaining about the decision to send her to the front.
“I could go AWOL because of this injustice, but that’s not my path. The guys need me here,” she said.