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Ukraine ‘Outgunned And Outnumbered’: Desertions En Masse – OpEd

Early 2022 witnessed the high morale of the Ukrainian military and civilian population resulting in to be a force multiplier for the Ukrainian army’s defense power against the war with Russia. In comparison, the low morale of the Russian supported forces and military near neutralized Russia’s overwhelming military superiority over Ukraine in the early months of the war. The initial euphoria of February 2022 of joining the forces to protect their motherland has evaporated, owing to an astronomical number of deaths. Ukraine’s military is now ‘Outgunned and Outnumbered’, struggling with low morale and high rate of desertions. As the battlefield situation deteriorated, an increasing number of troops have started to desert. In just the first four months of 2024, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against almost 19,000 soldiers who either abandoned their posts or deserted, according to the Ukrainian parliament. This prolonged war nearing three years have near decimated many Ukrainian infantry battalions making the situation grim on the battle fronts. Reinforcements are few and difficult to be created, leaving soldiers exhausted, demoralized and desert. Despite Ukrainian President Zelensky determined to continue fighting the war, young Ukrainians are fiercely opposing conscription and refusing to go to the warfront to get killed. The escalating fighting along a more than 1,000-km front line is stretching Ukraine's already outnumbered troops. Ukraine said on Nov 11 that its hard-pressed military was battling 50,000 troops in Russia's Kursk region to its north, while also scrambling to reinforce two besieged fronts in the east and bracing to meet an infantry assault in the south. Crucially, soldiers say they are poorly armed and complain of having the enemy in sight, watching them advance, and being unable to fire because they have no ammunition, according to accounts from soldiers reported by CNN. The figures vary Truth is the first casualty in any war and so has been in this Ukraine- Russia War. True statistics are not available from both the nations and their militaries. The casualty figures and damage destruction estimates for both sides have been exaggerated for the opposing sides! Military War Casualties. Citing a confidential estimate from Ukraine earlier this year, the report suggested that 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, while 400,000 had been wounded. Meanwhile, Western intelligence estimates suggest Russian losses range from 200,000 dead to around 400,000 wounded. Both Russia and Ukraine have kept their war casualties confidential. In February, Ukrainian President Zelensky stated that around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. However, former political and security officials believe this figure underplays the true scale of losses in order to maintain public morale and continue recruitment efforts. Desertions. According to the Kyiv Post, it is believed that about 60,000 people have been facing criminal charges for fleeing their posts since the war started. However, British daily The Times also cited figures from the prosecutor general which, it said, showed some 51,000 criminal cases were initiated for desertion and abandonment of a military unit between January and September of this year. El Pais cited a closer figure of 45,543 desertions between January and August this year, which it said was data from the Prosecutor General’s Office which had been leaked to the Ukrainian press. Ukraine’s youth not willing to fight a war that’s not their own. Ukrainian army today faces a serious desertion crisis as 30,000-plus soldiers have already fled from their posts. Civilian Deaths. As of 31 August, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) had verified that conflict-related violence had killed 11,743 civilians and injured 24,614 in Ukraine since 24 February 2022.Independent assessments have put the civilian toll closer to 100,000. Migrants. Some 14 million Ukrainian Migrantshave fled their homes either to other countries or other parts of Ukraine. According to the UN refugee agency, Poland is sheltering more than 1.5 million people from Ukraine. Will the majority migrants ever come back. Russian leaflets calling for Ukrainian troops surrender Russian troops dropped leaflets using drones with special QR codes (23 September 2024) calling for the surrender of Ukrainian troops, who are still entrenched in Novoukrainka in the South Donetsk direction west of Ugledar. Each leaflet dropped contained a call to immediately abandon their weapons, giving the enemy the opportunity to surrender on the battlefield, and instructions on how to do so, before their positions are powerfully stormed! The two-year battle for Ugledar, is likely to end with a victory for the Russian troops! This situation was expected much earlier and truth had to prevail about the ground reality; “They do not want to fight because they don’t see a clear cause worth fighting for: they are beginning to realize that they are not fighting for Ukraine; at best, they’re fighting for Zelensky and his circle, who are profiting tremendously from this Ukrainian tragedy. They realize that they are fighting for Europe and for the Americans, and that neither Zelensky, nor the Europeans, nor the Americans care about Ukrainian lives.” As part of the plan to boost morale of the front-line troops specially trained officers are posted to provide moral and psychological support. No one talks of Peace including the UN The US, NATO and the West wants the war to continue and escalate in order to weaken Russia. Zelensky has a so called ‘Victory Plan’ if adequately supported by the Western allies led by the US. From the heads of states of the stake holders to gun makers, traders, diplomats, the war is lucrative for everyone.  Will the US President-elect Donald Trump having promised to bring an end to these ongoing wars of Ukraine and Gaza succeed? Both the wars have brought profit and prosperity to the US arms industry. Militarism is the US national religion “We believe in wars. We may no longer believe in formal declarations of war…We believe in weaponry, the more expensive the better”. Will Donald Trump change this American belief in his second tenure as the US President? No one talks of Peace including the UN. The powerful players do not listen to the UN.  References: Open Source