Oleksandr Litvinenko told deputies that since the war began in February 2022, “a total of 1.05 million citizens have been conscripted.”
The official added, “We intend to recruit more than 160,000 people,” which will allow the army’s ranks to be replenished by 85 percent.
A security source explained to Agence France-Presse that this wave of mobilization will be organized during the next three months, during which the Ukrainian Parliament has just extended the state of emergency and conscription.
Ukrainian authorities traditionally do not disclose armed forces numbers or mobilization plans, and make little announcement of military losses.
At the end of February, the president said Volodymyr Zelensky 31 thousand Ukrainian soldiers were killed. This number does not include missing soldiers, whose number is estimated at tens of thousands. The number of wounded has never been revealed, and is usually higher than those killed in armed conflicts.
The Ukrainian army is facing difficulties in renewing its ranks about 3 years after the start of the invasion, while the situation on the front is very difficult and the Russian army took the initiative about a year ago.
Mobilization is a controversial topic UkraineMany Ukrainians consider the conscription system unfair, and a number of corruption scandals have been revealed in the field of conscription.
In October 2024, the United Nations estimated the population of Ukraine at about 35 million people, compared to 43 million at the beginning of the war in 2022, and 45 million in 2014 when Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.
