Ukraine’s military wants more soldiers but it isn’t that easy

Ukraine's military leaders want to mobilize hundreds of thousands of more soldiers according to information revealed by Volodymyr Zelensky during an annual end-of-year press conference on December 19th. 

Ukraine has been engaged in a life-or-death struggle with Moscow for the better part of nearly two years and the country’s manpower shortages were commented upon by the only man who sees the issue clearly. 

At least that's how it appeared when Zelensky remarked that military leaders proposed the mobilization of between 450,000 to 500,000 new soldiers to reinforce the country’s defenses against Russia’s invasion. 

However, Zelensky explained that adding a half million men to Ukraine's armed forces was “a sensitive matter” and told reporters he asked for more details before he would make a decision according to The Hill.

"I need specifics: what will happen to the million-strong army of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian President was quoted as questioning by BBC News. “What will happen to those guys who have been defending our state for two years?

Zelensky also said he ruled out a proposal to mobilize women and gave a detailed explanation of what the costs of an additional 500,000 soldiers would be on the country’s population, noting it would be equal to $13.4 billion. 

The Kyiv Post reported that the country needed six taxpayers per soldier, and noted that Zelesnky questioned where the country would find three million new taxpayers to fund the new troops the military requested. 

However, even if Ukraine could find a way to finance a new mobilization of 500,000, there might not be enough available men who are fit for service or haven’t already served their stint on the frontlines of the battlefield. 

Statistics from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in October that were quoted by The Hill showed that Ukraine already had 800,000 soldiers under arms, a number which did not include the country’s national guard. 

In total, Ukraine had one million soldiers in uniform. How many more people the country could mobilize isn’t an easy question to answer but officials in Kyiv have been working on ways to make joining up easier after the many mobilization-related issues the country has faced since the war began. 

Ukraine suffered from a serious bribery and corruption problem that saw a growing number of people reluctant to go to war seek out medical exemptions from officials in exchange for cash, according to a report from Reuters.

"There are examples of regions where the number of exemptions from military service due to medical commission decisions has increased tenfold since February last year," Zelesnky said in a nightly address in August. 

"It is absolutely clear what sort of decisions these are. Corrupt decisions,” the Ukrainian President added, explaining that some people were bribing officials with anywhere from $3000 to $15,000 for a medical exemption. 

A separate analysis was also being done at the time to figure out how many people fled the country based on a medical exemption. Zelesnky noted that the number was likely in the thousands according to reporting by Reuters. 

In November, a BBC investigation into the issue found nearly 20,000 had fled Ukraine to avoid the war between February 2022 and August 2023. Another 21,113 were captured as they attempted to flee as well.  

Ukraine’s conscription and corruption problems revealed a very worrying fact about the current conflict. There are those inside the country who don’t want to risk their lives defending Ukraine against Russia for one reason or another. 

“There are two categories of people – one is already in the army and the other is too scared to go outside so as not to be conscripted, and no salary will make them leave their houses,” one factory owner told The Guardian in August, a statement that likely still holds true.