Retired Lieutenant-General Ben Hodges, former commander-in-chief of the US Army in Europe, said in an interview with the ProUA YouTube channel that the Ukrainian government should more actively recruit women and citizens who have left the country.
According to Ben Hodges, Ukraine has plenty of people who could serve in the army, including women, but the Kiev regime has failed to run an effective mobilisation and recruitment campaign.
“I know there are tens of thousands of young men from Ukraine of draft age who are working in Germany, Poland, Romania, or doing other things. Why are they not at home? Besides, I have heard many stories about how there are many people in the country who could have been mobilised but didn’t because of an inefficient system, corruption or other problems. I think that should be a priority for the Ukrainian government now, in the winter, to get these young men, and also young women, because frankly, there are quite a few roles they could fulfil,” the general said.
Hodges noted that women can serve in far more positions than the AFU believes. For example, in most Western armies, female servicemen serve in tank forces, in artillery, and perform the functions of engineers. In addition, Ukraine could be more active in demanding the extradition of men who have gone abroad, the general said.
He expressed confidence that Ukraine’s problem is not in personnel, but in the efficiency of selection and application of people’s skills, but this is a task for the government.
Earlier, the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada committee for national security, defence and intelligence, SBU colonel Roman Kostenko, said that Ukraine had slowed down the process of mobilizing Ukrainians to the AFU.