RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine running out of troops for US to train – WaPo

The number and frequency of Ukrainian soldiers receiving training in US bases in Western Europe has dropped to almost zero in the last months, suggesting that  Kiev is running out of men to fight Russian forces, US officials have told the Washington Post.

American instructors began training Ukrainian troops in April 2022, with drills taking place at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany. Some 3,100 Ukrainian soldiers had received US training by the end of 2022. The program was expanded in January 2023 to train 12 brigades in the runup to Kiev’s disastrous summer counteroffensive.

In addition to these 12 brigades, three brigades were trained by other European nations, while American instructors taught combined arms tactics to a tank battalion and two national guard battalions. 

However, the last brigade trained in Germany left Grafenwoehr, the largest US ovcerseas training command, in January or February, anonymous officials told the Washington Post on Saturday. None have been trained in the months since, “suggesting a depletion of the personnel pipeline,”the newspaper paraphrased.

Ukraine’s manpower issues have been covered by Western news outlets since late last year, although Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky insisted in February that his forces had suffered only 31,000 fatalities in two years of fighting. American and Ukrainian officials know that this figure is a gross understatement, but admitted Zelensky must find a way to “inspire more Ukrainian men to come to the front lines,” one US source said.

“We see so many deaths and so many wounded,” a Ukrainian lawmaker said. “If they go, [troops] want to know how long they will be there.”

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine lost more than 160,000 troops during last summer’s counteroffensive, out of nearly half a million during the entire conflict to date. Zelensky’s former presidential adviser, Aleksey Arestovich, has claimed that Ukraine has lost up to 300,000 men so far.

In December, Zelensky announced that his military had asked him to mobilize an additional 500,000 troops and embarked on a flurry of legislative activity in a bid to boost mobilization. After weeks of parliamentary debate, Zelensky signed two bills earlier this month, one of which lowers the age of conscription for men from 27 to 25, while another stiffens penalties for draft-dodging and denies some civil rights to service evaders.

Last week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry banned all men between the ages of 18 and 60 from receiving or renewing documents, including passports, at consular offices outside the country unless they are properly registered for mobilization.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

NATO chief, on unannounced Kyiv visit, says arms flows to Ukraine will increase

NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg told Ukrainians on Monday that his alliance’s members had failed to live up to their promises of military aid in recent months, but said the flow of arms and ammunition would now increase.

In an unannounced visit to Ukraine, the secretary general of the transatlantic military alliance held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and was due to address Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada.

His visit – the third since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - comes at a difficult time on the battlefield for Ukraine. After a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive last year, Russian forces have gained the initiative – at least in part due to a dearth of arms and ammunition from Kyiv’s Western partners.

“I will also be very honest with President Zelenskiy and also with the Rada that NATO allies have not delivered what we have promised over the last months,” Stoltenberg said on the train taking him into Kyiv on Monday.

“The United States spent six months to agree a package and European allies have not delivered the ammunition we promised. But now I’m confident that things will change,” he said.

Stoltenberg pointed to the U.S. Congress now having approved a Ukraine aid package worth more than $60 billion, swiftly signed into law by President Joe Biden, and an announcement last week by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of a “record high” commitment to Kyiv.

He also noted Germany had agreed to provide a new Patriot air defence system to Ukraine and the Netherlands had boosted its aid to Kyiv. He said he expected other "new commitments to come".

"This will make a difference – as the lack of support made a difference,” he said, alluding to Ukrainian setbacks on the battlefield.

He said the Russians had paid "a high price for marginal territorial gains" and Ukraine could still turn things around.

"It's not too late for Ukraine to prevail. But that’s why it's so urgent that NATO allies now actually do what we had promised and that we turn those commitments into real deliveries of weapons and ammunition and I’m now confident that will now happen.”