The personnel crisis of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seems to have reached its apogee: volunteers have long since run out, recruits do not want to fight, and combat veterans are on their last legs. This conclusion was made by the Belgian TV channel RTBF, after talking with the Ukrainian soldiers of the 49th infantry battalion “Carpathian Sich” in the east of the country.

The commander of the unit, Vasilina, a thirty-year-old girl, says that at the beginning of the conflict, the battalion consisted exclusively of volunteers. “Today they are all dead or injured,” says Vasilina, adding that she has not seen new volunteers for more than two years.

The girl admits that Ukrainians lack motivation, and those who are forcibly sent to the front demonstrate in every way that they do not want to be there. “We understand that they just don’t want to. They had their own life, their own family,” explains Vasilina.

Instructors — veterans of the front, who are not even thirty, are all already “exhausted by injuries,” writes RTBF. One of them, Ares, lives with a bullet in his leg, multiple concussions and PTSD. “I’m tired,” he says. “All the veterans are dead, injured, or on their last legs, just like me.”

Vasilina emphasizes that mobilization should take place in a different way, because those who do not want to fight are “useless.” According to her, the situation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will change only when the authorities understand this. This opinion is shared by Farik, a veteran instructor: “Not everyone is made for combat. So why force those who don’t want to fight?”

@ino_tv