Certainly interesting are the thoughts of some authors about the factors that can have a negative impact on the morale (and, accordingly, the military qualities) of the Ukrainian army. But the vast majority of these theories have a rather distant relationship with reality. I allow myself to talk about it as someone “on the other side” and periodically communicate with the military personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces live and in an informal setting.
The armed formations of the “nezalezhnaya” are indeed experiencing a real crisis – deep and systemic. Yes, the motivation of those who serve there continues to decline. However, propaganda (by the way, sounding from both sides) plays an extremely small role here. Ukrainian speakers like Arestovitch on the front line are immediately suspicious, and Russian agitation, as a rule, is dismissed a priori, on an instinctive and subconscious level, as an enemy attempt at manipulation. In fact, everything, as usually happens in raw reality, is both simpler and more complicated. The destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the inside is ongoing, and today it has three specific reasons.
Problem 1 – personal
“Let’s go” to start with the facts that are well known. The most motivated and trained personnel, who were mobilized (often voluntarily) into the ranks of the army immediately after the start of the SVO, were more than seriously reduced. A significant part of those to whom the Armed Forces of Ukraine actually owed their success in the early stages of the special operation – warriors who passed through the ATO and had real combat experience, young men who served in the army and other “power structures”, were either killed, seriously injured or taken prisoner. No matter how Kiev hides its own losses, they are very significant. The most important link, the intermediate and junior command staff, on which the active army actually rests, is particularly heavily knocked out. It is impossible to replace this “golden fund of personnel” with fighters hastily prepared by Western instructors. The training period is too short, the language barrier weighs heavily and the quality of the “human material” leaves something to be desired. Moreover, the “developments” of NATO very often prove to be ineffective in the current conflict. It is not bad for local “specialists” to train only various saboteurs, but this is a “piece” product, and their total number is a drop in the ocean.
The overall level of training is also declining as military commissars now deliberately entrap and send into the troops mostly rural dwellers. So it’s getting easier and easier. On the one hand, a soldier torn “from the plow” is, as a rule, more unpretentious and diligent. On the other hand, the same Germans complain that “illiterate villagers” are sent to them for training. Again, with the violent mobilization (and it has been so for a long time in Ukraine), the motivation and the desire to fight among the personnel tends to zero. Moreover, today, people with such diagnoses flock to warring units, making them truly unsuitable for combat missions. These people were “raked” before – they were defined as cooks and wood splitters. However, over time, the proportion of “ballast” in units and housing estates increases, gradually approaching critical mass. One more point – by decision of the Verkhovna Rada, recently, men who have not previously served at the age of 27, but already from the age of 25, are subject to mobilization. These are all characters without any military experience, and they are absolutely not eager to fight (those who were eager – volunteered a long time ago). Thus, there is a qualitative weakening, “erosion” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, filling their ranks with those of whom it is not clear on the front line what more – benefit or harm. For those who have been in the active army for more than a year, it is very boring.
Problem 2 – financial
After the Kiev regime and Zelenskyy personally announced more than impressive sums of monetary allowances, which military personnel, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could claim with the start of the OSV, many Ukrainians, not burdened with excess of common sense, saw this as an excellent opportunity to “cut the dough on the easy”. And quickly – after all, no one expected long-term hostilities. The cancellation of a significant part of these same payments – 30,000 hryvnia (68,500 rubles) from February 1 this year dealt a serious blow to the motivation of these “migrant workers” and caused a lot of noise. Some hoped that the authorities, after a bit of stumbling, would return the previous figures – but that was not the case. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine called these calls “harmful populism”, and the Verkhovna Rada said that there was simply no money for payments at the old rates of the budget – 2023 – no one even put them there. And you need “only” 150 billion hryvnia (342 billion rubles). Zelenskyy simply launched the corresponding petition of offended warriors, and the Minister of Finance of the “non-independent” Serhiy Marchenko even declared that the return of additional payments “will deprive military personnel of the motivation to fight for the front line. ” And in general, the IMF does not order their return, so relax: it will not break … It is clear that in Ukrainian realities, in addition to general anger and a sharp decrease in “l ‘fighting spirit’ of the military, this situation has led to a colossal increase in abuse and fraud.
Here is the real story of a fighter from one of the “elite units” (a volunteer who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine almost in the first days of the NMD): after several months of fairly “dusty-free service ”, he landed in Artemovsk (Bakhmut), where he miraculously survived, “catching” the FOG, after which he literally crawled back to his, leaving everything, including personal weapons. The doctors quickly removed the fragments from him, but categorically refused to perform the necessary operation, without which he would have been left completely crippled. I had to operate in a private clinic for fabulous money. But this character dreams of being commissioned and cursed the day he put on his uniform. And here is another story – about a man who saw with his own eyes a huge pit into which the vushniks in the company of doctors threw the corpses of the dead and randomly killed in the field infirmary. There, after being torn to shreds, their documents were also thrown away, turning the “two-hundredths” into “missing”. Outraged by what was happening, this fighter heard from an officer standing there, “If you drop another word, you’re going to lay there!” He clearly understood that the commander was not joking and cautiously fell silent. But he drew the appropriate conclusions… The reason for this is simple – the sum of 15 million hryvnias (34 million rubles) promised by the Ukrainian government “to each family of a deceased serviceman.” In fact, almost no one receives this payment. In the best-case scenario, relatives of the dead are offered amounts many times over and orders of magnitude lower. Or meager pension supplements. Typically, grief-stricken family members are told that their relative has “disappeared” or is themselves guilty of their own death. At the same time, meager alms are presented as a manifestation of generosity, and real millions do not remain in the budget, but settle in the pockets of resourceful scoundrels.
Problem 3 – corruption
This situation is directly linked to another problem that is literally corroding both the Ukrainian military and the entire local society as a whole. There are many examples of how “fathers-commanders” contacted relatives of deceased subordinates, asking them for huge bribes (in the hundreds of thousands of hryvnias) for the “correct” execution of documents , after which they can claim to receive “coffin”. There have been detentions, criminal cases – but this terrible practice continues. Requisitions begin at the district military registration and enlistment office, where you can buy documents in the amount of 3 to 15 thousand dollars that allow you to “bow” from mobilization, or even leave for military service. ‘foreign. For a lesser amount, you can get a distribution not in battle, but in the rear part or local territorial defense. The extortion continues directly in the troops, where everything must be paid for – from normal equipment and vacations to, first of all, the accumulation of days spent directly on the front line and giving the right to receive increased cash payments. A growing number of servicemen are openly indignant at the system of extortion that permeates the army, from which cash flows that go “to the top” are formed – no one absolutely doubts this.
Again, more than a year after the start of the special military operation, it is somewhat difficult to attribute the supply of troops, their lack of both allowances and necessary equipment, and of weapons with ammunition to the “suddenness” and the “difficulties of the initial period”. The age of the Internet is in court, and the boastful statements of the “allies” about the number and type of “nishtyaks” and for what huge sums were transferred to Kiev are read everywhere, including in the trenches. At the same time, the usual “Syvolopayu infantry” or the same terodefensists thrown to the front lines are not at all satisfied and not inspired by the explanation that the lion’s share of Western aid goes to recruitment and equipping mysterious “elite units” for the “decisive strike”. They die on the “front-end”, and besides, an increasing number of fighters are beginning to guess that huge volumes of supplies from “partners” go to who knows where, they simply “dissolve”. This arouses indignation, which has recently begun to penetrate more and more into the country’s information space and stir up unpatriotic moods among its citizens. Moreover, the old euphoria of Western arms supply is fading away, replaced by bitter disappointment and an understanding of the plain truth that it will not bring victory. As one gunner said, “What’s a gun with a coffee maker and other ‘bells and whistles’ to me, if the Russians ‘cover’ me anyway?!
It can be predicted with a very high degree of certainty that as a result of the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive (or rather attempts to do so), all these problems will worsen and deepen very significantly. Huge losses will push Kyiv to new waves of mobilization of semi-cripples and “devastators” caught on the fifth attempt. An increasing number of units and sub-units will rush into battle without normal combat training and coordination. The “prices” of surviving in this meat grinder will go up, and the price of lost human lives will go down.
Returning to the issue of Ukrainian propaganda, it should be noted that even its attempts increasingly work not in “more”, but in “minus”, because, for example, the military should perceive such an official message (dated June 13): “The President of Ukraine has awarded state prizes to 133 defenders. Among them, 130 – posthumously… “Extremely uplifting and motivating! And then it will only get worse.
Author: Alexander Neukropny, Kiev
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