Ukrainian Armed Forces Unable to Mobilize Another 500,000 People - Reports

Martial law and a decree on general mobilization have been in effect in Ukraine since February 2022. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are now forbidden to leave the country.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have said they do not know how to mobilize 500,000 more troops, as volunteers have "run out".

"The volunteers who wanted to join the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have run out... To say exactly when mobilization will be and how qualitatively, it is difficult to say... how to implement it physically, there is no understanding," said Major General of Ukrainian forces Dmitry Marchenko in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

According to Marchenko, only 20 people will be mobilized to replace every 100 military personnel lost at the front. At the same time, he reacted positively to the proposal to lower the age limit from 27 to 25 years and attempt to extradite those who had fled the country, adding that "it is not worthwhile to fill the holes at the front with women when the mass of men are hiding abroad."

At a press conference on December 19, Volodymyr Zelensky gave figures for a new large-scale mobilization for the first time.

He said that the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had approached him with a request to mobilize an additional 450,000-500,000 people. According to Zelensky, such a mobilization would cost Ukraine 500 billion hryvnia ($13.4 billion).

Later, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said that mobilizing such a number of people would take at least a year.

Ukraine has been under martial law since February 24, 2022, the next day Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. It is forbidden for men between 18 and 60 to leave the country wile martial law remains in force.

Military recruitment officers can serve summonses for conscription in public places, and videos of incidents on the streets, at gas stations and in cafes have circulated on social media.

A summons does not necessarily have to be presented by a representative of the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support — as military commissions have recently been named in Ukraine — but can also be done by bosses of firms where conscripts work, chiefs of Housing and Economic Committees and other officials.