The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukraine’s Parliament) has voted to adopt a new mobilization bill, removing the provision on demobilization after three years of service. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces now have eight months to come up with a draft bill on rotation and demobilization. The Defense Ministry says the decision to address these issues in a separate bill is necessary so as to not make “hasty decisions”. The new draft bill will take into account the risks associated with serving on the front. Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers who have been serving since the first days of the full-scale invasion, and their relatives, will remain in a state of suspension and uncertainty for another eight months. Some might not make it to the expected date of the new demobilization bill. The Village Ukraine talks to soldiers about service that has no end date.

Bohdan Lepiavko,

Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Serving since 28 February 2022

   

The issue of at least partial demobilization – and in the foreseeable future – is, of course, an urgent one. But there are two forces at war: enemy forces carry out certain actions and we have to respond – and vice versa. If our enemy has a lot more human resources at their disposal, and they launch a mobilization and gather even more personnel, we have no choice but to increase our force too. The issue of demobilization is inextricably connected to the issue of mobilization. Soldiers know full well that we can’t let our defense forces shrink. To make demobilization possible, a number of people larger than the number of those who will be discharged have to be recruited and trained. We need not just replacement, but also a reserve. When the government flirts with populism, saying things like “We don’t need a lot of people…”, there’s only one way for people in the military to interpret this: demobilization won’t be happening any time soon. If it did, we would lose and die – as a country and as a nation.

How the mobilization bill is being adopted is a whole other issue. Ideally, it should’ve restored a sense of justice, especially among people in the military; it should’ve given them a sense that everyone has to contribute to our future victory, not only those who joined the army during the first weeks or months of the full-scale invasion and who have by now been serving for the past two years. Demobilization would allow these people a chance to rest, recover, and take care of their health and private affairs.

I’m not going to make predictions, but I’m sure some of those who will be demobilized will return to the army 3–6 months later. Some will come back through recruiting, which will make sure they get into units and positions where they will be the most useful. (It takes a long time to transfer between units, and the process can be difficult). Those with relevant training, volunteers, and especially ATO participants, won’t be able to stay home and watch the war unfold on their TV screens. But they do need to rest, and a 15-day vacation won’t quite cut it.

However, in order to make demobilization possible, we first need to make the mobilization process more effective: authorities and officials responsible for conducting mobilization have to be given the powers they need to enforce it, and penalties for evading military service have to be strengthened, including for those who are liable for military service but are currently abroad. Only then will it be possible to have any realistic terms of service.

Illia Havrylenko,

transferred to the National Guard of Ukraine after a year of service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Serving since 2 March 2022

   

It feels like you’re walking across a very old bridge that hasn’t been repaired for decades. It still holds, but you’re constantly aware that it might collapse at any moment, and the further you go, the more likely the collapse. It’s the same here: the longer you stay in the combat zone, the greater the likelihood that one day you’ll just get “unlucky”.

If we had a fixed term of service, we’d have something to hope for, a goal we’d work towards, a moment when the public would recognize we deserve some rest. At the moment, most of us see that there’s only two ways to get out of here: you either get killed or severely disabled.

The longer we serve, the more pessimistic many of us become about our prospects. Many feel betrayed by the state and try to come up with ways to avoid going back to the front: from faking illness to drinking antiseptic. Some eventually stop fearing criminal liability for unauthorized absence or failing to carry out orders.

Anton (a pseudonym), Special Operations Forces

Serving since 28 March 2022

   

What is it like to serve forever? Even if you’re not in the combat zone the entire time, it feels like your life doesn’t belong to you – that it’s just passing you by. Of course, this feeling changes with years; I didn’t feel that way in 2022, but that’s how I feel now. Years go by, and people around me change and grow: they build families and leave family behind, they get jobs, then change them. Meanwhile you’re doing what the state tells you to do. You entirely depend on the state. You can’t change anything. You’re the property of the state. You grow apathetic and indifferent to the things happening around you. You burn out. Not having an end date on your military service is not great. People who are in charge of mobilization policy have to understand that the human resources at their disposal won’t last forever. Even if they stay alive and more or less healthy, they grow less and less effective.

Ivan,

3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Serving since 24 February 2022

   

I don’t think I can say anything new about the fatigue military personnel are experiencing in the third year of the full-scale war. (Some of my brothers-in-arms have been fighting for even longer, the past 10 years.) Fatigue is our constant companion. I’ll just stress several key things:

1. At war, we’re far from our families – we see them very infrequently, during our short vacations. It can’t not affect our family lives, the relationships inside our families. Several of my brothers-in-arms are married but can’t have children, for obvious reasons.

2. The first point I mentioned causes mental health issues which are amplified by the permanent stress of service. More mental health help has been available at the unit level, but it’s not enough.

3. The next point I want to mention is something I heard from a soldier with the call-sign Saigon. It made a great impression on me. Civilians mostly see soldiers when they’re exhausted and wearing their dirty uniforms, about to catch a bus or a train on their way to or from a vacation or a medical exam; they see those who have been injured or the bodies of those who have been killed. They hear stories about former soldiers who have been discharged (for various reasons), about incompetent commanders and understaffed units. No one ever sees handsome, strong, healthy servicemen who have been demobilized and are now holidaying with their families; no one hears about successful operations that haven’t been undertaken by the Security Service or Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, but ones carried out by regular soldiers who repel Russian assaults or take over Russian positions without losses or casualties; no one hears about competent units that some of those who will be demobilized will eventually return to.

This becomes a source of public tension, a misunderstanding of military personnel by civilians – and the other way round. The fact that civilians are mostly exposed to tragic stories is also part of the reason why people don’t want to join the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

4. Indefinite mobilization makes military personnel feel like they’re indentured. All of us experience this uncertainty, which is extremely unmotivating.

I’m being very diplomatic here, very careful with words. I think everyone understands how negatively people in the military feel about indefinite mobilization.

Viktor Zahorulko,

transferred to the 4th Rapid Response Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine after two months in the Territorial Defense Forces

Serving since 24 February 2022

   

I’ll say straight away that this is my personal opinion, not my battalion’s official position. At some point after I finished mandatory military service, I told myself that I would not only never return to the army, but would never work anywhere that requires you to wear a uniform, because it feels like prison. In 2015, however, I decided to join the Sich voluntary battalion. Yet when I saw that the barracks were located in [former President Viktor Yanukovych’s] helicopter hangar, I remembered my years of mandatory service and changed my mind. On February 24, 2022, however, like thousands of other people who had nothing to do with the army and never planned on joining the military, I signed up for service. Some, like me, joined as volunteers and took care of our own supplies, but eventually became absorbed in the army. This had its benefits (supplies and provisions) and drawbacks (pouring great efforts into maintaining bureaucratic rituals and limits imposed on our freedom of movement).

After two years of honest service, I think that the government and the military command have betrayed us, because they’re not giving us a chance to return home with dignity and get at least a year’s rest, even after three years of service. Personally, I am tired. I think about suicide a lot. As a precaution, I tell myself that if I do it, then all of my work would have been in vain, and I will be sent here again in my next life. So I have to keep going.

Someone might wonder why I’m so tired when I get days off. Yes, I’ve spent the last year away from the frontline, but unfortunately working in a military administration unit is a bureaucratic hell of its own.

Unfortunately, the state has so far made zero effort to ensure the levels of mobilization that would be sufficient to replace those who have been serving for a while. At least in Kyiv, I’ve not seen anyone being stopped [to be given a call-up notice]. Thousands of people live their lives while we seem to be doomed to serve indefinitely.

Mykhailo

Serving since 24 February 2022

   

First, I’d like to stress that fighting for Ukraine is a great honor and the duty of every man who calls himself Ukrainian. We have had to fight for our very existence and for our independence throughout the history of Ukraine. We continue the fight as we continue to write our country’s history… The word “war” means different things to different people, and everyone chooses their own path. Some have been serving in the armed forces for over 10 years, others took up arms and took the oath after February 24, 2022. For others still, their lives have not changed at all.

As for what it feels like to have no end date for my service, I’ll tell you this: it’s our brothers-in-arms who have been killed in action who will fight forever… Their memory is what gives us strength to keep fighting. They give us courage and motivation to continue their work. Those 18-year-old boys, those men and even grandpas, who fought next to us, have handed us their Cossack standards and the duty to keep fighting until we win.

Our families also motivate us to continue fighting for our country’s freedom. It’s for the sake of our children, our descendants that we are driving the Katsaps [derogatory Ukrainian term for Russians – ed.] out of our land.

Of course, like anyone, we – soldiers – miss our families and want to be near them. I really want to see my daughter grow up, to be part of her achievements and victories. I want to be near my wife, to make her life easier, to walk our Staffordshire terrier every morning when my wife helps our daughter get ready for school and every evening to free her up to do what she loves doing – to cook delicious food for us, her gourmand family.

It’s very difficult emotionally to spend 25 months away from your family and very sad to see the rate of mobilization in Ukraine, the rate at which our armed forces are replenished. Mobilization isn’t about forcing someone to do something. It’s a process whereby men, the citizens of their country, get trained, replace – NOT US – those of our brothers-in-arms who have been killed, and fight side by side with us. A unit that’s not being replenished can’t function effectively: it can’t carry out operations to liberate occupied territories or repel relentless enemy attacks. Units that aren’t fully staffed struggle not only to liberate occupied territories, but even to defend those that have not yet been touched by war. Mobilization should first and foremost take place in the hearts and minds of everyone who considers himself a man and a Ukrainian.

Don’t throw stones at me, but my opinion is this: to fight forever is a real honor, because those who have joined the defense forces are fighting for things that are sacrosanct for every Ukrainian: for their country, its freedom, and the future of their children.

Last thing I’ll say, in anticipation of my wife’s reaction to everything I’ve said so far:

Lera, my love, my heart, I really want to come back to you and our Sofiika, to our dog and your cat. But I have work left to do here, with the guys. We’ll get things done quickly, secure our victory – and then they’ll finally get to try your cinnamon buns. I love you.

And one other thing! I almost forgot about it. If you’re hesitating whether to go drown yourself in the Tysa river, or to finally accept your call-up notice from the hands of those scary military enlistment officers: take it. There’s nothing to be scared of. Serving in the defense forces is alright. You’ll get all the training you need, and you’ll also be taken care of. The most important thing is to choose your unit well. Maybe we’ll even end up serving in the same brigade.

Dmytro Neteta,

241st Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Serving since 24 February 2022

   

Soldiers want to know how long they’re expected to fight for. Most currently believe that you leave the army only when you’re either dead or severely disabled. “One-way ticket” and “eternal service” is how my brothers-in-arms describe military service. This hopelessness saps motivation and is depressing, and everyone finds their own way of dealing with it: often either drinking or resigning.

There’s more and more hatred towards those who dodge military service – the source of their problems, as far as soldiers who are currently serving are concerned. They know that they have to continue doing this because there’s no one to replace them in the trenches. Lack of personnel also means that smaller groups are now being deployed to hold positions, which leads to preventable losses.

The prospect of “eternal” service also negatively affects mobilization. Who would possibly want to volunteer to serve somewhere where their rights and freedoms are limited, risks are enormous, and the possibility of being discharged is an illusion? Especially when legal responsibility for draft-dodging is minimal and opportunities to evade military enlistment are nearly boundless. Lawmakers’ inability to do something about this feels like a cruel joke. Within months, the law on mobilization has been stripped of every provision that could’ve made the lives of draft-dodgers more difficult. The claim that we are all equal before the law is now no more than farce: the law is strict only for those of us who are in the military. 

The split between the army and civilians is growing ever wider. The public seems to believe that the only people fighting on the front now are either professional soldiers or “volunteers”, those who volunteered to join the army or decided not to evade being served a call-up notice. The idea is that all those people have chosen their fate and have to bear its brunt. Meanwhile, a large share of people serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are civilians who had zero combat experience prior to this and who don’t envision their future in the army, even after two years of fighting. Most of them had income and a standard of living that can’t be compared to what they get in the army. When those people hear claims that someone else is not fit to fight or that it’s more important for someone to remain behind the frontlines, they feel that others are hiding behind them or that they’re being sacrificed so that someone else could get on with their civilian life. It’s no longer enough to say you’re grateful to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It’s time for the self-preservation instinct to switch on. 

What can be done? It’s clear to those serving in the military that as many people as possible should join the army. We have to have a robust reserve of those who have combat experience – but those people should also have an opportunity to spend time at home, away from the trenches, to recuperate and be prepared to rejoin the military should their help be needed. An army a million-strong is a great force, but an army that has several million more  with combat experience in the reserve is invincible.

Russia has to realize that the Ukrainian people will fight for as long as it takes to annihilate our enemy. It’s a race with no finish line in sight, and the cost of losing is your own life. We will be better able to win this race if we treat it as a relay, not a marathon.