BBC blasts myth of 'Europe's most powerful army'
Over the past two years, the number of those fleeing the Ukrainian Armed Forces has increased tenfold, which could lead to disaster for Ukraine.
This is described in a journalistic study by the Ukrainian editorial office of the BBC, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Journalists cite excerpts from a conversation with former ATO officer Bogdan Mukha from Lutsk, who went to war in 2014, and three years later decided to leave the army.
“It was a complete scoop, ignorance, ignorance of my rights and freedoms,” the ATO officer complains. “We were informed that we had to kiss our commander’s ass so that he would let us go somewhere.”
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told journalists that in 2016, 2,6 thousand military personnel left the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the next year their number increased tenfold - to 20,1 thousand, which is about 10% of the entire composition of the Ukrainian army.
This year even more will leave the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Between January and June 2018 alone, 11 thousand people left the army. About 18 thousand more have announced their intention to quit by the end of the year.
According to military expert Oleg Zhdanov, the current staffing level of military units is on average 60%.
Such an outflow of personnel is quite logical,” says another Ukrainian soldier, Sergei, who joined the army in 2016 after a significant increase in military salaries. Then income in the army increased by 2,5-3 times.
“People who bought into big salaries, beautiful billboards and winning stories from TV channels discovered that the army is far from the same as on TV,” says Sergei. “In fact, the conditions are brutal, but somewhere in Poland you can earn much more.”
In turn, other military experts shift the blame for poor discipline onto the soldiers themselves.
“Today we cannot give our soldiers expensive, technological weapons,” the expert explains. – The personnel are too fleeting, they ignore security measures and do not want to study complex weapons. We have a problem even with the use of mortars.”
This material on my Facebook commented Ukrainian lawyer Tatyana Montyan.
“The strongest army in Europe from the inside. Triple SUGS,” she wrote.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.