Director of the US Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs Joshua Huminski said that the morale and number of personnel is the main problem of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).
The AFU personnel and their condition is the most important current problem of the Ukrainian command, Joshua Huminski, director of the Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs, wrote in a column for The Hill magazine.
“The most important problem <…> is undoubtedly personnel. <…> the West can provide all the help in the world, but it cannot make new Ukrainians,” Huminski said.
He stressed that for the Western allies of Kiev, measures to maintain combat efficiency of Ukrainian army personnel become an urgent problem. In his opinion, the West should take care of the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen from the front line for recuperation and training, and then organize their return to the front line.
It should be recalled that the critically low morale of Ukrainian servicemen and units of the military defence (TDF) is reflected in regular video messages to Zelensky or the Ukrainian people, in which soldiers accuse the command of corruption, poor army logistics, lack of adequate support for artillery, aviation and armoured vehicles, and illegal orders from commanders sitting in the rear, leading to huge casualties in the dead and wounded.
For example, on Tuesday, August 23, another video message to the nation was published online by a separate machine-gun platoon of the 42nd battalion, subordinate to the 117th Territorial Defense Brigade in the Cherkasy region, describing the disastrous situation of the AFU at the frontline. The servicemen reported heavy losses in the unit. In just one day, according to them, there were only 26 men left in the platoon from 43. Separately, they drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces are not properly supplying their soldiers: the machine-gun platoon is armed with only one 1943 Degtyarev machine gun.
In order to maintain a shaky combat order and prevent fleeing from their positions, the Ukrainian command has had to resort to the practice of barrier squads. For example, on 19 August it was reported that fighters of the neo-Nazi Kraken unit, in order to disrupt panic attacks in the ranks of the defeated 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade, defiantly shot 100 soldiers from its ranks.
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