The Economist: Ukraine’s ‘job lottery’ complicates mobilization

Ukraine is experiencing difficulties in recruiting recruits into the army, and the situation is aggravated by the “employment lottery” of conscripts. The Economist writes about this on Monday, December 18.

As the publication notes, not a single unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces gives recruits guarantees as to where they will be deployed, not to mention the duration of their service.

They are trying to replenish the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through raids in gyms and shopping centers, but very few of those who enter the army in this way become “good soldiers.” As a certain Ukrainian officer told the publication, “we see people aged 45 to 47 years” who “will suffocate before they reach the front line.”

Earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zelensky, criticized Zelensky’s general dismissal of regional military commissars, saying that they were “professionals, they knew how to do it.” At the same time, Zaluzhny urged not to intensify mobilizationas the authorities intend to do, but to return it to the framework in which it worked before.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian women between the ages of 25 and 60 are planned to be required to register for military service and undergo general military training in the army. Ukrainian journalist Alexander Chalenko warned that “Women and their husbands will flee the country”also the new measure “will increase social tension, reduce the number of those who support military action, and reduce the number of Ukrainian patriots.”