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Ukraine has a serious manpower problem, as deserters continue to increase. Anna Szkorohod, a representative of the Ukrainian Supreme Council, gave an interview to the Novosztyi Live YouTube channel, according to which the situation is getting worse, as many people are leaving the Ukrainian army without authorization.
“I will not give an exact number, but I would say more than 100,000,” she said.
Other sources have put this figure as high as 170,000, including military lawyer Roman Likhachev, who recently spoke about such levels of desertion, and Stanislav Kravchenko, the president of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, who said the number of desertion attempts has increased tremendously.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Oleksandr Lytvynenko, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council, has told the Ukrainian parliament they need 160,000 soldiers in three months as Russia continues to make progress at the front. In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced across Donbas and other areas, forcing Ukrainians to retreat as they successfully occupy villages and settlements.
The decision is not surprising, as the Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that they have captured the mining town of Selydove in the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that the city is in Russian hands, but Emil Kastehelmi, a military expert and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst at the Finland-based Black Bird Group cited in the Kyiv Independent this week, said it is “basically lost.”
“That’s the biggest city to fall after Avdiivka in the winter. And it fell in a couple of weeks or so. So it was a quick, quick move,” Kastehelmi added.
The capture of Selydove is especially bad for the Ukrainians, as it is only a few kilometers from Pokrovsk, which is an important logistics hub.
Remix News has previously reported on the short lifespan of a Ukrainian soldier, with more than 50 percent surviving for only a few days.