(Dan Tri) – Ukrainian soldiers admitted to the country’s media about difficulties and worries that Kiev will no longer have enough manpower capable of fighting in the conflict that has lasted more than 20 months.
Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian targets in Bakhmut (Photo: Getty).
Ukrainian soldiers told the Kyiv Independent newspaper that they are worried about not having enough combat-capable personnel to continue to maintain the pace of attacks and counter-attacks in the upcoming conflict with Russia.
Accordingly, many soldiers fighting on the Donetsk front said that creating a breakthrough in this area is becoming more and more difficult.
As Russia continues to send ammunition and large numbers of soldiers to reinforce the front lines, Ukrainian soldiers are concerned about how long they can keep up with the pace of fighting.
`If Ukraine no longer has people capable of fighting like us, there will only be inexperienced personnel on the battlefield,` Roman, who joined the army in 2016, admitted.
A driver, who was assigned to the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade near Bakhmut, also told the newspaper that he was worried about the risk of Ukraine running out of soldiers with morale and combat experience.
`We are gradually running out of manpower. This war will be very, very long,` admitted the driver nicknamed Ninja.
Ukraine has not released the number of soldiers killed in the war with Russia, but in August, the New York Times quoted US officials, estimating this number at about 500,000 people.
Oleksandr Maroshnyk, a 31-year-old infantryman from Odesa who served in the 93rd Special Mechanized Brigade, told Kyiv Independent that his unit initially had 110 people in June 2022.
However, out of the original 110 people, now only 4 people are still fighting because his comrades were either killed or injured.
`You can’t imagine what we had to endure because imagine fighting and seeing deaths from morning to night – it was terrible,` said Maroshnyk, who is fighting in Bakhmut
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians enlisted when the war with Russia broke out, joining Kiev’s then 261,000-strong Armed Forces.
Now, only a small fraction of Ukrainian soldiers who have served since the beginning of the war until now, according to the above newspaper.
Ukraine continues to mobilize more men to join the army, but the survival rate of new recruits is often low.
On the other hand, seeing comrades die and having to spend up to 13 hours a day in the trenches also severely damaged the mental health of Ukrainian soldiers.
For soldiers on the battlefield who are losing longtime comrades, it is a war of mental and physical attrition with an uncertain future.
An infantryman from the 28th Special Mechanized Brigade said that although he himself was not afraid of death, he was still shocked by the number of comrades who died.
`I just want to go home, I feel tired. When will this war end?`, said the 41-year-old soldier, nicknamed Anatoly.
