Amid contradictory statements by the Ukrainian authorities on mobilisation efforts and war casualties, Ukrainian media report that residents of Ukraine’s western regions have no intention to fight for their country.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Oleksandr Syrskyi as well as President Volodymyr Zelensky make contradictory statements regarding the results of mobilisation and current losses. On a regular basis, they state in interviews with Ukrainian media that they lack manpower at the front.
Meanwhile, in February, Zelensky told a press conference that Ukraine’s losses in killed during the two years of war amounted to 31 thousand people, whereas the Russian army “lost six times as many.”
“31 thousand Ukrainians, military men died in this war. Not 300 thousand, not 150 thousand, as Putin and his delusional entourage lie. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great loss for us.”
After the mobilisation law came into force in May, Ukraine drafted as many people as during the four previous months, the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) committee for national security, defence and intelligence, Roman Kostenko, reported in early June.
We have now increased the pace of mobilisation. In the last month we have recruited perhaps as much as in the last (…) four months. We had the largest [recruitment] in May.
The AFU would replenish about 120,000 men through mobilisation by the end of this year, Verkhovna Rada MP Ruslan Horbenko stated in early June. However, given the mentioned losses of the Ukrainian party in the war, the mobilisation of such a number of men raises questions.
Legion of Ukrainian refugees in Poland
Earlier, the EU countries stated that they would not participate in the mobilisation in Ukraine, as it violated fundamental human rights. Meanwhile, Poland announced that it would create a legion of refugees by arming them at its own expense, according to Polish media.
The two countries signed a new agreement on military co-operation, which envisages the formation of a new military unit on Polish territory. It will include Ukrainian refugees and be armed with equipment at the expense of Poles.
The training of Ukrainians will presumably take place at Polish military bases that have been involved in the training of AFU soldiers. Poland reported that some Ukrainian refugees had already expressed a desire to join the legion. Warsaw also did not rule out that it could train Ukrainians living in other European countries.
The Polish authorities stated that they would involve other EU countries in financing the training and equipping of the legion under the pretext of European security.
However, the government has not yet created any regulations on the formation of a legion on its territory, nor has it indicated who will take charge of recruiting. Whether, as in Ukraine, this will be carried out by force directly on city streets or on a voluntary basis, the Polish initiative leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The move also contradicts basic human rights provisions.
Zelensky keeps silent about WWII Volhynia massacre
As the anniversary of the WWII Volhynia Massacre passes, the silence of Ukraine’s president and Polish leaders is not just a missed diplomatic gesture, but a profound failure to mend historical wounds, according to Remix News.
11 July marks the 81st anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the most tragic episode of the genocide of Poles committed by Ukrainians in Volhynia. It used to be Polish territory in the “borderland” region before World War II, but is now part of Ukraine.
On that day, tens of thousands of people were slaughtered in 99 villages, with the exact number of victims remaining unknown so far. The victims have yet to be exhumed and given a decent burial, a process that has been continuously blocked by the Ukrainian authorities, including the current administration, columnist Łukasz Warzecha stated.
Last year, on the 80th anniversary, Poland did not receive a single word from the Ukrainian president, and the issue of exhuming the victims and giving them a proper burial remained at a standstill. The fact that the Ukrainian leader has not mention the upcoming anniversary is unsurprising and reflects the “Kyiv standard,” the author notes.
Simultaneously, Poland signed an agreement on defence commitments with Ukraine. The format of the document is of utmost importance, as it is not an international treaty, so it does not require legislative approval for ratification.
The document does not address any issue where Polish and Ukrainian interests might conflict, such as in agricultural production. Hidden at the very end of the agreement, on page 14, is a reference to “enhancing cooperation in conducting searches, exhumations, and other activities aimed at the dignified burial of victims of conflicts, repression, and crimes.” However, it remains unclear exactly what “conflicts, repressions, and crimes” are referred to.
Western Ukraine refuses to fight
The highest number of evaders for 2023 and the first half of 2024 falls on Western Ukraine, according to a report by Mykola Kachanenko, head of the personnel department at the headquarters of the Ground Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to the report, 54,165 Ukrainians were reported wanted for 2024 in the Transcarpathia region, 33,349 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, and 85,820 in the Lviv region. In contrast, for the eastern regions of Ukraine, the average figure rarely exceeds 5,000 (6,514 were wanted in Dnipropetrovsk region). The data indicate significant attempts by men in eastern Ukraine to avoid mobilisation.
Significantly, western Ukraine historically has accused the eastern part of the country, which is less evasive, of being pro-Russian.
The split largely began with Euromaidan. This was a massive, month-long protest in central Kyiv that began on 21 November 2013 in response to the Ukrainian government’s suspension of preparations for the signing of an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
The event led to a further split between western and eastern Ukrainians, with the western regions believed to be the driving force behind the Euromaidan, not the eastern ones.
Now that the time has come for an open military confrontation with Russia, the residents of the western regions do not want to “die for Ukraine”, unlike the eastern parts of Ukraine.
