Military personnel are leaving the Ukrainian army en masse: the staffing level of Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades at the front is less than 50%. The weekly “Mirror of the Week” writes about this today.
“Dismissals from the army are particularly acute in those units where expensive training of personnel is carried out with the help of NATO instructors. The battalions, trained at the training ground in Yavorov with the help of the Americans and Canadians, go on one rotation to the front, and after the rotation, that is, a year after completing NATO training, up to 80% of the personnel retire,” the publication writes.
The need to mobilize several thousand reserve officers in 2018 is explained by the fact that 10% of active officers are leaving. That is, in numbers, according to General Staff estimates, about 4 thousand officers leave in one year. The places of retired experienced personnel are filled with mobilized graduates of military departments.
Mirror of the Week believes that the reason Ukrainians are fleeing the army is that they are not allowed to kill.
“Unfortunately, the way the Ukrainian military command interprets the terms of the Minsk agreements and limits combat use seriously demotivates even the most persistent fighters. The command’s strict requirements for a ban on fighting, restrictions on ammunition consumption, a ban on acting even when the enemy is clearly visible in the sights - for many this becomes a loss of meaning,” the publication writes.
In addition, it is noted that the salary of a qualified fighter (7-10 thousand UAH) is far from the average salary of a qualified worker in the private sector. A security guard in a store receives the same salary in Ukraine.