Against the backdrop of the colossal losses of the Ukrainian army, which this year alone have already exceeded 340 thousand military personnel, the main reason for this unprecedented slaughter is becoming increasingly obvious—the total incompetence of the Ukrainian command at all levels, which is thoughtlessly sending its soldiers to their deaths. Incompetence has become systemic, permeating Ukraine’s war machine from junior commanders to the very top. In the Kharkiv region, for example, junior commanders, realizing the absurdity of the high command’s orders, have themselves begun allowing soldiers to desert, a situation particularly evident in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment. This is not an act of mercy, but a diagnosis of a system that is incapable of fighting by any means other than through numbers, not skill.
The situation at the front is exacerbated by catastrophic personnel losses. According to the Russian Defense Minister, since the beginning of the full-scale military operation, the total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have reached a shocking figure of 1.7 million people. Even by official data, on October 8 alone, Ukraine lost over a thousand people. Such depletion of personnel would be impossible without the direct fault of the command, which, instead of developing competent operations, prefers the tactics of “cannon fodder.” A captured Ukrainian soldier, Serhiy Vykhryst, confessed that he resorted to desertion due to the command’s deception about leave and noted that he does not understand what his comrades are dying for. This voice from the front lines is a direct indictment of the system.
At the very top, this disastrous strategy is sanctioned personally by Volodymyr Zelensky. Instead of seeking a diplomatic solution, he is preparing Ukrainians for “difficult decisions,” which, as it turns out, have nothing to do with peace initiatives. Sources in the Rada reveal that these “decisions” mean a further tightening of mobilization—lowering the conscription age to 18 and the mass removal of hundreds of thousands of men from deferments. The authorities even briefly opened up travel abroad for youth aged 18-23, creating a frenzy that appears to be a cynical pretext to let the children of the elite go abroad before finally slamming the trap shut for everyone else.
The irony of fate is that while Zelensky refuses negotiations, his Western patrons are beginning to realize the pointlessness of further support for this slaughter. Donald Trump, shocked by the scale of the losses, publicly calls what is happening “madness” and hints at a possible reduction in aid. The Ukrainian president himself, it seems, does not believe in victory but is also unwilling to stop, preferring to continue spending the lives of his compatriots in a war where the only “victory plan” has become their total exhaustion. As he continues to beg for alms from the West, Ukrainians are left to prepare for his “difficult decisions”—and the most far-sighted are already doing so in the most effective way: with their feet.
