Long queues in front of army recruitment centers are a distant memory in Ukraine.
The country’s authorities do not communicate the official number of deaths caused by the conflict. According to a tally by American officials, reported by the New York Times, at least 70,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives since the start of the conflict.
The war lasts. With it comes weariness, reinforced by a front line that moves little: Ukraine holds its defensive position, the Russian offensives eat up little ground.
Russia has just take the town of Avdiivkain the east of the country, after months of efforts where Ukrainian forces tried to hold on.
Around 500,000 more soldiers would be needed for the situation to be resolved, according to the Ukrainian army general staff. The army currently has 1.1 million fighters.
On the ground, some remain hopeful not only not to cede ground to the Russian aggressor, but also to find the borders of 1991by recovering Donbass and Crimea.
“The task is ambitious and, unfortunately, without additional mobilization, without new brothers, we will not succeed.“, deplores Yurii, an artillery commander.
The failure of last summer’s counter-offensive, coupled with the drop in Western aid, does not encourage optimism.
Strengthening mobilization?
Ukrainians aged 18 to 60 are supposed not to leave the territory, because they can be called up if the professional army and volunteers run out. With the latter becoming fewer in number, the army is increasingly forced to mobilize this reserve of citizens, among those aged 27 and over.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would like to be able to discharge conscripts who have not been demobilized since the start of the war two years ago. On the ground, many soldiers are exhausted.
For that, the aim of the authorities is therefore to encourage mobilization, in particular via a set of laws that Parliament will vote on at the beginning of March.
Volodymy Zelensly recently regretted certain cases of forced mobilizations. Certain passages of the future law could resemble this, and are debated among the deputies, in particular on the fact of allowing the police to forcibly take recalcitrant people to be enlisted in army recruitment centers.