Overview
- Financial Times, citing Ukrainian military sources and analysts, reports serious personnel shortfalls with some front sections lacking troops and only four to seven infantry soldiers on average per kilometer.
- A Ukrainian military official told FT that many newly mobilized recruits desert long before reaching their units, contributing to thinning lines.
- In Dnipro, a State Emergency Service employee was mobilized despite an official exemption because the deferral did not appear in the 'Reserve' app, according to MP Oleksii Honcharenko, and colleagues’ documents were not accepted.
- Ukraine’s military ombudsperson Olga Reshetylova said territorial recruitment centers are staffed at below 40% of needed levels and described the registration system as in need of reform.
- Russian security structures claimed a record 21,602 desertions in October, a figure reported by RIA Novosti that has not been independently verified.