Overview
- Financial Times, citing Ukrainian personnel and experts, reports severe troop shortages with some front-line sectors left without soldiers.
- A volunteer quoted by FT says only four to seven Ukrainian infantrymen are guarding each kilometer of the front in some areas.
- An unnamed Ukrainian military official told FT that many recently mobilized recruits desert before they reach their units.
- Analyst Konrad Muzyka of Rochan Consulting says the army’s numbers are shrinking and some positions are effectively monitored by drones rather than held by troops.
- A State Emergency Service employee in Dnipro was mobilized despite having an exemption because the Reserve app did not display it, according to MP Alexey Goncharenko, underscoring reported app failures and strained exemption quotas.