Ukrainian Army Refuses to Fight Russia

MOSCOW – Most of the soldiers in the army Ukraine which is a mandatory military program does not want to be on the front lines.

This is reported by the Belgian television station (RTBF). In a report, RTBF reviewed footage and interviews from the French news agency AFP recorded last week at the training ground of the 49th Assault Battalion Carpathian Sich in eastern Ukraine.

“The training they received at the mobilization center was completely useless,” battalion press officer Vasilina Nakonechna said, explaining that the unit had forced conscripts to undergo basic training again, RT reported.

“Don’t point your gun at your friend’s back,” an instructor was heard shouting behind him.

According to Nakonechna, Ukrainian army units compete “fiercely” for conscripts. “We first select the youngest,” he explains. “We look them in the eye to see who wants to go to the front.” Most men, he says, do not.

The Carpathian Sich was an all-volunteer unit at the start of the conflict with Russia. “They are all dead or wounded” now, he said.

One instructor, a foreign volunteer identified only as ‘Ares’, still has a bullet in his leg and post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’m tired,” he told AFP. “All the veterans are dead, or wounded, or desperate, like me.”

Ukraine’s army has been devastated by two and a half years of fighting, according to AFP. In May, the government in Kiev changed its mobilization rules to recruit more men — sometimes by force. One recruit was a 24-year-old postman from western Ukraine who said he had gone to renew his military registration but was sent to the front lines instead. Others were snatched off the street on their way to work.

“Not everyone is cut out to fight,” one instructor, Farik, told AFP. “Why force people who don’t want to fight?”

Conscripts who don’t want to fight are “useless,” Nakonechna said. The government in Kiev is beginning to understand that “motivation is key” and can change mobilization rules accordingly, he said.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that Ukraine was losing 50,000 soldiers a month – about half of whom could not be recovered – while being able to recruit no more than 30,000 replacements.

(ahm)