Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has come under fire for failing to push the whole country to make sacrifices in support of the war and not expressing what the endgame of the fight against Russia should be, an expert has claimed.
Melinda Haring, a non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Centre, recalled her recent visit to the Zaporizhzhia region, during which she was able to speak with soldiers fighting on the frontline.
These men and women, Ms Haring said, are “determined” and “steely” – but are also “damn tired”, having been at war for a long time.
Appearing on Sky News Daily podcast, Ms Haring said: “They’ve been fighting for more than 600 days. They haven’t been replenished, they haven’t really had a chance to really go home.
“They get 30 days off a year, and it’s not 30 at a time, they are in 10-day chunks. They really want a break.”
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In the wake of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Kyiv ordered a general mobilisation of the male population between the ages of 25 to 60.
As the war grinds on, Ukraine has ramped up the draft, with no limit to the time soldiers are being asked to serve.
These long periods away from home are taking a toll not just on the soldiers but also on their families, with the analyst saying there are widespread issues related to divorce and family breakdowns.
She said: “One gentleman I spoke to said he is from L’viv, he keeps his family together by giving music lessons over Facetime to his daughters.”
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Pointedly, these soldiers believe Mr Zelensky should ask more from the country and not just his troops, Ms Haring said.
She said: “They feel that all of society is not sacrificing, that Zelensky has not put the country on a war footing. So I think that’s going to be a big problem. I’m not sure why Zelensky hasn’t mobilised all of society and the economy as well.
“I heard frustration that they don’t understand what the plan is, that Zelensky has not articulated what the end looks like.”
Ms Haring continued saying she and her colleagues in Washington DC do have discussions about what Kyiv would consider a victory, with a wide range of possibilities – recovering the four regions annexed by Russia in 2022, recovering Crimea or reinstating the 1991 borders.
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Reporting an answer she was given by some of the soldiers she spoke to, the analyst said: “They said Melinda, we just want to go home and we don’t want rockets to hit our house. That’s what victory is to us.”
In late October, scores of parents, partners and children joined protests in several Ukrainian cities to demand a cap of 18 months – the same maximum enforced before the beginning of the war – on mandatory military service.
Despite concerns for the mental and physical state of troops, there are no signs the Ukrainian public support for the fight against the Russian invasion is waning.
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