MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. As some 350,000 troops, or one-third of the Ukrainian army, have been fighting on the frontline for more than three years already, no rotation has taken place due to a lack of manpower, explained Alexander Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief.
"The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) discussed including demobilization in the mobilization bill to demobilize those who have served for three years last year. Back then, we estimated that around 350,000 troops would have been pulled in April. We would have actually lost one-third of all troops," Syrsky told Ukrainian news outlet Levy Bereg.
According to him, Ukraine cannot rotate troops due to problems with recruiting new servicemen.
The senior military leader also agreed with a remark from Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that the Ukrainian army needs to mobilize at least 30,000 troops every month to replenish the military ranks according to plan.
Earlier, another news outlet, Ukrainskaya Pravada, quoted officers on the frontline as saying that Ukraine’s army cannot demobilize previously recruited servicemen amid an acute deficit of troops, with two soldiers fighting in certain Ukrainian positions instead of the dozen needed.
General mobilization has been repeatedly announced and extended in Ukraine since February 2022.