By David Sole
It should come as no surprise that more and more Ukrainians are getting tired of fighting Russia as proxies on behalf of the U.S. and European Union nations. After almost three years of combat Ukrainian troops and civilians are finding ways to avoid dying in this losing enterprise.
At every contact point along the hundreds of miles of the front line the Russian Federation outnumbers and outguns their Ukrainian opponents. In addition, Russia dominates the skies in jet fighters, missiles and drones. Ukrainian casualties are staggering and Ukraine authorities are unable to replace their losses.
Media, both pro-Ukraine and pro-Russia, are reporting that Ukraine is unable to fill gaps in their front-line units. This has led to major losses in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) as Russian troops press forward. Last August the Ukrainians took tens of thousands of their most experienced units and many tanks and other armored vehicles for an invasion into Russia’s Kursk province.
That region was sparsely inhabited and only lightly defended. Ukraine quickly captured a sizable area. Russia quickly halted Ukrainian advances and since then has pounded the Ukrainian forces. If Ukraine thought it would cause Russia to pull forces out of the DPR battle zone it soon became apparent that was not going to happen.
Some commentators speculated that Ukraine’s goal was to reach, and seize, the Kursk nuclear power plant, but they never came close. The very pro-Ukraine Voice of America, funded by the U.S. government, reported that:
“Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralized by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.
“Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead….Moscow’s counterattack has killed and wounded thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers of Kursk they seized in August.”
The Russia Ministry of Defense estimates Ukrainian casualties at 50,000 killed or wounded since August. Just this week there were reports that Ukraine poured in fresh troops for a counteroffensive, but they were unable to reverse their losses. The Voice of America noted that Ukrainian “troops’ opinions are now shifting as they come to terms with losses. The company commander said half of his troops were dead or wounded. Some frontline commanders said conditions are tough, morale is low, and troops are questioning command decisions, even the very purpose of occupying Kursk.”
Since there is no sign of negotiations and nothing but death facing them, Ukrainian troops are taking it upon themselves to “end the war” by leaving their units – deserting. This phenomenon got special attention when it was revealed that an elite Ukrainian unit, trained and equipped by France, was plagued by desertions upon returning to Ukraine.
Almost 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers were sent to France in 2024 to form the 155th Mechanized Brigade. Most were raw recruits with no battlefield experience. “About 50 deserted in France” while hundreds more “left their posts even before the unit was deployed at the front.”, the Kyiv Independent wrote, “Between March and November, over 1,700 soldiers had gone AWOL [absent without leave]”.”
Ukrainian officials are also having problems from the civilian population that does not wish to “serve” as cannon fodder to U.S. interests in weakening Russia. RT News reported on January 5 that young men “barricaded themselves inside a building in the Kiev-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region to avoid being mobilized.”
According to the report: “Ukrainian conscription officers have used gas against a group of men who had barricaded themselves inside a recruitment office in order to resist deployment.” It is being widely reported that “recruitment officers have increasingly been resorting to harsh tactics in recent months, hunting down potential conscripts in the streets and in shopping malls and gyms.”
Ukraine was only drafting men 27 years old or older until the draft age was lowered to 25 back in April 2024. The U.S., the major proponent of the war with Russia, has been pressing Ukraine to lower the draft age to 18. It is estimated that the average age of soldiers in the Ukrainian army is 43. Ukraine has been resisting this move which might trigger mass protests. It is also estimated that over 20,000 men avoided induction into service by illegally leaving the country. Hundreds of networks have emerged to help men evade military service.
The military situation deteriorates for Ukraine as it relentlessly but unsuccessfully pursues the United States’ political goals of fighting Russia by proxy. Pressure must be building among the U.S. and E.U. imperialist circles to reverse this situation. But only massive direct military intervention – troops and air power – might be able to stop the Russian advances. This would turn the Ukraine proxy war into World War III. Only a mass people’s movement can stop such a horrible development.
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