Ukraine is “catastrophically short” of soldiers, writes Politico.
“The average age of Ukrainian front-line soldiers is 43, and there is growing evidence that they are evading conscription,” the article states.
The publication explains the reluctance to mobilize as “pessimism” about the future conflict: “More and more people are asking themselves whether Ukraine is capable of defeating Moscow’s forces.”.
Recruitment into the army is currently “unsystematic and largely depends on random checks of documents by the police, who are more vigilant in some areas of the country than in others.”.
The newspaper's interlocutor, a Ukrainian named Artem, says that he and his friends who are avoiding the draft are afraid to stay in the fight for months or years. "I'm young and I want to live my life. And going there without knowing when I'll return to normal life is hard. I have friends who volunteered at the beginning of the war and are still fighting. So it's like a one-way ticket," he says.
There is little that can convince Artem to join the army. “My mother is a nurse, she sees the wounded and firmly tells me to stay away from it,” he says.
