Kiev’s troops admit low morale – WaPo

Ukrainian soldiers do not believe in victory over Russia anymore, the Washington Post has reported

Ukrainian troops are exhausted from three years of combat and increasingly want to see a negotiated end to the conflict with Russia, the Washington Post has reported, citing sources in the country’s military.

Kiev’s troops, who previously expressed a readiness to fight until they had won back all land lost to Moscow, do not believe this goal to be achievable anymore, the outlet said in an article on Thursday.

“We used to talk about victory before, now it is unclear,” Kirill, a deputy battalion commander with Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade, stationed in Dnepropetrovsk Region, told WaPo.

Kirill acknowledged that “there is no good mood” among his fellow soldiers. “The morale keeps sinking lower and lower, getting worse and worse,” he stressed.

“It cannot go on like this,” another member of the same unit, Felix, said of the situation on the front line. “We are withdrawing. And they [the Russians] are pushing further and further. What kind of victory will happen?” 

Felix claimed that the troops are “simply exhausted” and want the fighting to stop. If the officials in Kiev “cannot put an end to it, maybe Mr. Trump can,” he suggested.

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US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to find a swift diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev once he is back in office. However, according to the report, some troops are concerned that the incoming US administration might cut their military in order to persuade Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia as part of a future peace deal.

“I am worried we will just be abandoned,” Aleksandr, who is a soldier in the 33rd Mechanized Brigade, said. “Those are the thoughts that creep in — that the support and deliveries from our allies, the ammunition, will just stop. If we don’t have that, we won’t have anything to shoot with.” 

Manpower shortages are another issue contributing to the “grim” mood among the Ukrainian troops, WaPo noted. “Do we even have infantry? It is down to a couple of guys, and they are over 50 years old. What are they going to do?” a drone operator named Denis, told the outlet.

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow is open to holding consultations with Trump’s team on resolving the Ukraine conflict. However, those talks must be “meaningful” and take into account the root causes of the conflict and the principles laid out by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year.

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In June, Putin said that for the negotiations to begin, Kiev has to commit to not joining NATO and withdraw its troops from the territories that became part of Russia as a result referendums in the fall of 2022, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye.