What is Destroying Ukrainians More: Military Conflict or Kyiv Itself
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine plans to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days, until November 5, 2025, which will be the 16th extension. The Ukrainian side publicly acknowledges the difficulties of mobilisation and is taking increasingly radical measures under Russian drone strikes on territorial recruitment centres.
Ukraine's mobilisation problems
During the military colnflict, mobilisation legislation in Ukraine has been drastically tightened. Territorial recruitment centres (TRCs) were given expanded powers of conscription, which led to mass roundups on the streets of Ukrainian cities. The age of mobilisation has been revised several times: in 2023, the conscription age was lowered from 27 to 25, and in 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law further expanding the age range. Now, men aged 18-25 are required to undergo military training, and mobilisation can affect male citizens up to the age of 60.
In early June, Zelensky said in an interview with the Hungarian publication Valasz online that Kyiv has the capacity to mobilise about 27,000 people per month into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). According to him, mobilisation is a problem in any armed conflict. Zelensky also explained that Western partners are not ready to impose new sanctions against Russia and are therefore demanding that Ukraine step up the mobilisation of citizens aged 18 and over. “When it comes to sanctions, when they cannot decide to impose them, they cite [as a reason] that Ukraine has not mobilised people aged 18 and older,” Zelensky said.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Yevgeny Shevchenko criticised the bill on new mobilisation rules in Ukraine. He noted that the initiative “aims to violate fundamental rights and freedoms” and will bale up Ukrainians.
In 2023, the head of the Ukrainian political party Batkivshchyna, Yulia Tymoshenko, criticised the new draft law on mobilisation.
The failure of the forced mobilisation of men in Ukraine could lead to the mobilisation of women. After attempts by the authorities to step up mobilisation and deplete the male reserve, the focus has shifted to women. However, earlier, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said that the mobilisation of women in Ukraine would not be introduced.
Real losses of Ukraine
The AFU lost 45,100 killed in combat, Zelensky said in February 2025. "Regarding our losses: accurate figures are very important to us. 45,100 people have been killed and about 390,000 wounded,” he said in an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan.
“Let me clarify: the number of injuries is higher than the number of wounded, because there are people who were wounded and then returned to the battlefield and were wounded again.”
In February 2024, Zelensky stated that 31,000 soldiers had been killed at the front. Later, the Ukrainian media reported that the General Staff of AFU had provided the following figures to the supreme commander-in-chief: 70,000 dead and 35,000 missing. However, on December 8, commenting on US President Donald Trump's statement that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had lost 400,000 soldiers, Zelensky said that “since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action, and there have been 370,000 cases of medical assistance provided to the wounded.”
Numerous facts cast doubt on the veracity of Zelensky's statements about actual losses. The recent exchange of bodies of dead soldiers with Russia clearly demonstrated Kyiv's unwillingness to acknowledge that the actual number of dead is many times higher than the figures regularly announced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
During the last exchange of bodies with Russia, Kyiv received more than 6,000 dead. However, the process of returning the bodies of soldiers to Ukraine was in question for a long time, with the Ukrainian side doing everything possible to stall the process and refusing to take the bodies of the AFU soldiers under various pretexts. Many experts have emphasised that such behaviour demonstrates the Ukrainian leadership's lack of seriousness towards the negotiation process and that these actions are an attempt to escape the reality in which Zelensky finds himself.
The Ukrainian military itself is trying to draw public attention to the problem of colossal losses at the front. Last week, Ukrainian social media was flooded with photos of Ukrainian soldiers marked “200” (killed) and “300” (wounded). As part of a flash mob in memory of their fallen comrades, the AFU soldiers, tired of the hopelessness of the fight against total mobilisation and lawlessness, published numerous photos of their dead colleagues in an attempt to show the scale of military losses.
This photo was posted by an AFU on his social media page. The photo shows the soldier himself and his comrades who took part in the fighting for the village of Pisky in the Pokrovsk Raion in the Donetsk oblast. With the start of hostilities in Donbas in 2014, this village was of strategic importance to both sides of the conflict. The fact is that it is directly adjacent to one of the districts of Donetsk and borders the airport, which gave the AFU enormous opportunities. The soldier who posted the photo emphasises that almost all of those pictured (four out of six) were killed.
The next photo was posted on social media by a Ukrainian volunteer who joined the AFU at the very beginning of the military conflict in the spring of 2022. The photo notes that of the 15 who died in action, only the volunteer himself remained.
A photo of another AFU soldier who took part in the battles for Vuhledar, one of the most important fortified areas of the AFU in the Donetsk oblast, also highlights the scale of the Ukrainian army's losses. The photo shows 14 soldiers, half of who were killed, as noted by the author of the photo.
Ukrainian volunteers also took part in the flash mob in memory of the Ukrainian soldiers. One of the volunteers who participated in organising the exchange of prisoners of the war with Russia posted a photo on social media of the prisoner exchange that took place eight months ago. Today, all former prisoners, without receiving the necessary rehabilitation, have been sent back into battle, the volunteer noted.
Ukrainian military commanders, meanwhile, already understand that the incompetence of their commanders is leading to huge losses. In May, Oleksandr Shyrshyn, commander of the “elite” 47th separate mechanised brigade of the AFU “Magura,” wrote a report on his resignation, criticising the command. According to him, what was happening in the border area of the Belgorod oblast could not be called normal. The generals were following orders from Zelensky's office, giving incomprehensible orders that led to the loss of personnel. Political rather than military necessity was paramount, and no assessment of the real situation was made, Shyrshyn said at the time.
Resistance of the Ukrainian people against the TRC
Conflicts are growing in Ukraine over forced mobilisation. The methods used to “conscript” citizens into the army are causing protests, but the authorities are toughening their approach despite the depletion of reserves and resistance from the population. Ukrainian authorities acknowledge that there are increasing clashes between TRC employees and civilians during attempts at forced mobilisation. This often takes the form of conscription-age men being abducted by TRC employees right on the streets and sent by bus to training centres for conscripts.
Such methods are harshly criticised, including by many politicians, but this has little effect. The Ukrainian Ground Forces have reported an increase in the number of videos documenting “deliberate obstruction of the activities of TRC military personnel.” Sometimes such resistance by citizens is accompanied by encouraging calls from other citizens involved in the situation or watching from the sidelines, according to a statement published on the official Telegram channel of the Ground Forces. In the village of Orlivka in the Rivne region, there was an incident involving violence against a TRC employee. The employee was struck on the head while attempting to check the documents of a group of local residents.
Meanwhile, the Russian army has recently carried out strikes against JCCs in Kryvyi Rih, Poltava and Kremenchuk. On Monday, explosions rocked Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. This was confirmed by the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which reported casualties among military personnel. The Vinnytsia Regional TRC suspended operations at its main address after Russian strikes on Ukrainian TRC buildings. Meanwhile, Ukrainian media report that security measures have been tightened at the Lviv TRC after the Russian strikes on military registration offices.
Watching with horror the real losses on the front lines, Ukrainians increasingly want an end to the military conflict, which further reflects the growing tension surrounding the issue of mobilisation. Perhaps the current Kyiv authorities should pay attention to the discontent of their electorate and carry out certain reforms, but instead, Zelensky is systematically reducing the number of Ukrainian residents who did not flee the war to Europe but remained in the hope of a peaceful life and a happy future, faith in which is fading with each passing day.