Ukraine is experiencing a soldier shortage, as claimed by a close aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seen during his joint press conference with Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and Latvian President Egils Levits on September 9, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The anonymous source said that the Ukrainian army is suffering from a lack of manpower, which drastically affects the military's capability to use Western-donated weapons.
Here are other details about the ongoing Ukrainian soldier shortage shared by Zelenskyy's close aide.
How Ukraine Soldier Shortage Makes Western-Donated Weapons Useless
According to Business Insider's latest report, the Ukrainian source said that the European country doesn't have enough manpower to operate weapons donated by the United States and other Western allies.
Zelenskyy's close aide said that numerous Ukrainian military branches are suffering from a manpower shortage. He added that the U.S. and other allies already provided the warfare weapons they needed.
However, they "don't have the man to use them." One of the main issues causing the soldier shortage is Ukraine's incapability to stop combat-age men from fleeing the country.
The Ukrainian government currently has a legal regime of martial law, which requires 18 to 60-year-old men to stay in the country to defend it.
Unfortunately, Ukraine's State Border Guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko said that over 6,000 fighting-age men were able to find a loophole by forging their documents so they could leave the country and avoid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war.
But, some Ukrainians were not lucky enough. One of them was a 21-year-old man who tried to escape the draft by taking an international train to Romania.
Unfortunately, around 20 miles from the border, the police caught him and sent him back to Ukraine. While many Ukrainian men wanted to leave the country, others were able to find the courage to fight against Russian troops.
"If combat-capable people like us run out, we could only be replaced by people who don't know anything," said one of the soldiers.
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Other Reasons for Ukraine's Manpower Shortage
Ukrainian soldiers during the service, on February 23, 2023 near Salisbury, England Ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of soldiers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their UK instructors come together to remember those who have lost their lives in the war on Ukraine.
Aside from fleeing men, Time Magazine reported that another reason for the manpower shortage in Ukraine is the rising number of deaths caused by the ongoing war.
The Ukrainian military hasn't officially released the numbers of dead and wounded soldiers. However, based on the estimates made by the U.S. and Europe, the war already killed over 100,000 Ukrainian troops.
Military experts explained that Russians are able to kill hundreds of Ukrainian troops because many of these soldiers were not trained well.
This is not the first time the European country experienced manpower shortages. In April, Ukraine also announced that its soldiers were not enough, preventing the country from launching its counteroffensives against Russia.
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