Zelensky talked about that in the Sky interview. His allies tell him to recruit more soldiers and reduce conscription to 18 but that is NOT Ukraine's problem. The big problem is that their allies are not giving them enough equipment. He says very clearly, more soldiers without equipment will NOT help just more Ukrainian soldiers to die.
He says that a year ago he asked his allies to supply them with enough equipment for another 10 brigades - that's about 30,000 soldiers. So far Europe and USA combined have only equipped two and a half brigades
A few soldiers with better equipment can hold back many more with less equipment. He has plenty of soldiers but not enough howitzers, shells, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles etc. Everything that a NATO brigade would have
So it is a solvable problem. He doesn't understand why it takes his allies so long to find the equipment.
29:49: Q. There are Battlefield losses the East is is proving very difficult you don't have enough soldiers your own soldiers have told me there aren't enough soldiers, is there anything that could be given by NATO or by the United States to help with that problemm, the lack of soldiers? Are there weapon systems that if you had, you need less soldiers?
A. Yes.
Q. What are they?
A. We need to equip these brigades. When you have soldiers, we need to equip those brigades, otherwise you will take the soldiers, and move brigades to other brigades just to equip other brigades.
So you will never have enough resources. Because it doesn't matter.
Somebody asked me, I don't want to tell you the position of some leaders in Europe about mobilization - that you need young people to join etc.
I said what do you want - for them to die without your weapons?
Do you want me just to mobilize young guys and they don't know where to go in which Brigade or to fight with which weapons.
A lot of them want [to fight] but it's just not responsible.
Q. Because you are talking about bringing down the age of conscription
[Zelensky protects young people under 25 from conscription so that his country can continue to have qualified people for civilian society for after the war is over]
A. A lot of people will talk. ... with politics it's always like this if you have a problem closing a gap [here the problem of supplying enough weapons] you have to create a new problem.
So they speak about mobilization but the real problem is with 10 brigades which our partners didn't equip. [Soldiers Ukraine already has but can't equip]
I asked them very much more than one year ago that we need to equip these brigades we made this solution with United States and with European allies and [even]] today Europe and the United States have equipped two and a half brigades in total.
Q. So have they abandoned you then why aren't they giving you more weapons?
I don't know, this it's their decision there are some some bureaucracy some decisions,
they don't think that this is the priority etc
It's always the same way during this war but we are thankful for at least for those things which they gave.
Anyway this is big support big support but but it depends on the number of equipped brigades.
When you speak about the control situation on the East of Ukraine it depends on this.
Nobody from the West have ever fought in such a war and nobody has fought without jets.
They all say you can't do real strong offensive operations without air control.
They say "We don't understand how they fight without control of the sky."
So of course we need air defences and some equipped brigades.
[He explains earlier in the interview that there are enough spare Patriot systems in Europe alone to supply Ukraine with the defences it needs if they can give them to Ukraine - but same thing always hold ups]
Q. So that is a big failure. You accept there are only so many men you can have because there's a limit but the real failure then is the lack of weapons sent to Ukraine
[This is a very common misunderstanding, the issue is not a lack of men at all as Ukraine is at far less than UK war levels of conscription they could double or triple their army if they had the equipment as I've said in my debunks]
A. Limited number of soldiers? I believe we have a lot of soldiers. But the limitation is that frankly we must save as many lives as possible. And if in European or American offices there is an idea that we need to do something differently about the draft age, I want to just ask our partners to do their part of the job and we will deal with our part of the job.
+=============
So he is saying conscription is not the problem. If their allies can give them enough equipment they can find the soldiers and leave it to them to do that.
So in short this is one of numerous articles claiming that Ukraine has a shortage of soldiers. But it is always its allies say this. Ukraine doesn't say it has a shortage of soldiers, just of equipment.
It has more than 20,000 spare soldiers already that it can't use because it doesn't have the equipment and can easily recruit many more soldiers if it has the equipment for them. That is not their problem.
Same also with all these claims that NATO forces are needed to support Ukraine. What it needs is their equipment.
If NATO was prepared to send say 20,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine - they could help far more by sending just the EQUIPMENT for 20,000 soldiers which could then be used by native Ukrainians who speak the same language, understand the Ukrainian landscape and conditions etc.
Yes exactly. It is VERY STRANGE. Normally you'd expect many tests, perhaps 20 tests before they would say it is acceptable as an ICBM. It means they don't know if it would launch successfully or blow up.
https://apnews.com/article/deserters-awol-ukraine-russia-war-def676562552d42bc5d593363c9e5ea0
Zelensky talked about that in the Sky interview. His allies tell him to recruit more soldiers and reduce conscription to 18 but that is NOT Ukraine's problem. The big problem is that their allies are not giving them enough equipment. He says very clearly, more soldiers without equipment will NOT help just more Ukrainian soldiers to die.
He says that a year ago he asked his allies to supply them with enough equipment for another 10 brigades - that's about 30,000 soldiers. So far Europe and USA combined have only equipped two and a half brigades
A few soldiers with better equipment can hold back many more with less equipment. He has plenty of soldiers but not enough howitzers, shells, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles etc. Everything that a NATO brigade would have
So it is a solvable problem. He doesn't understand why it takes his allies so long to find the equipment.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Df0DQ7GWUc?start=1791
29:49: Q. There are Battlefield losses the East is is proving very difficult you don't have enough soldiers your own soldiers have told me there aren't enough soldiers, is there anything that could be given by NATO or by the United States to help with that problemm, the lack of soldiers? Are there weapon systems that if you had, you need less soldiers?
A. Yes.
Q. What are they?
A. We need to equip these brigades. When you have soldiers, we need to equip those brigades, otherwise you will take the soldiers, and move brigades to other brigades just to equip other brigades.
So you will never have enough resources. Because it doesn't matter.
Somebody asked me, I don't want to tell you the position of some leaders in Europe about mobilization - that you need young people to join etc.
I said what do you want - for them to die without your weapons?
Do you want me just to mobilize young guys and they don't know where to go in which Brigade or to fight with which weapons.
A lot of them want [to fight] but it's just not responsible.
Q. Because you are talking about bringing down the age of conscription
[Zelensky protects young people under 25 from conscription so that his country can continue to have qualified people for civilian society for after the war is over]
A. A lot of people will talk. ... with politics it's always like this if you have a problem closing a gap [here the problem of supplying enough weapons] you have to create a new problem.
So they speak about mobilization but the real problem is with 10 brigades which our partners didn't equip. [Soldiers Ukraine already has but can't equip]
I asked them very much more than one year ago that we need to equip these brigades we made this solution with United States and with European allies and [even]] today Europe and the United States have equipped two and a half brigades in total.
Q. So have they abandoned you then why aren't they giving you more weapons?
I don't know, this it's their decision there are some some bureaucracy some decisions,
they don't think that this is the priority etc
It's always the same way during this war but we are thankful for at least for those things which they gave.
Anyway this is big support big support but but it depends on the number of equipped brigades.
When you speak about the control situation on the East of Ukraine it depends on this.
Nobody from the West have ever fought in such a war and nobody has fought without jets.
They all say you can't do real strong offensive operations without air control.
They say "We don't understand how they fight without control of the sky."
So of course we need air defences and some equipped brigades.
[He explains earlier in the interview that there are enough spare Patriot systems in Europe alone to supply Ukraine with the defences it needs if they can give them to Ukraine - but same thing always hold ups]
But we will do it.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Df0DQ7GWUc?start=2052
Q. So that is a big failure. You accept there are only so many men you can have because there's a limit but the real failure then is the lack of weapons sent to Ukraine
[This is a very common misunderstanding, the issue is not a lack of men at all as Ukraine is at far less than UK war levels of conscription they could double or triple their army if they had the equipment as I've said in my debunks]
A. Limited number of soldiers? I believe we have a lot of soldiers. But the limitation is that frankly we must save as many lives as possible. And if in European or American offices there is an idea that we need to do something differently about the draft age, I want to just ask our partners to do their part of the job and we will deal with our part of the job.
+=============
So he is saying conscription is not the problem. If their allies can give them enough equipment they can find the soldiers and leave it to them to do that.
So in short this is one of numerous articles claiming that Ukraine has a shortage of soldiers. But it is always its allies say this. Ukraine doesn't say it has a shortage of soldiers, just of equipment.
It has more than 20,000 spare soldiers already that it can't use because it doesn't have the equipment and can easily recruit many more soldiers if it has the equipment for them. That is not their problem.
Same also with all these claims that NATO forces are needed to support Ukraine. What it needs is their equipment.
If NATO was prepared to send say 20,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine - they could help far more by sending just the EQUIPMENT for 20,000 soldiers which could then be used by native Ukrainians who speak the same language, understand the Ukrainian landscape and conditions etc.
So this missile is faulty and they decided to throw it into their stockpile despite poor tests?
Yes exactly. It is VERY STRANGE. Normally you'd expect many tests, perhaps 20 tests before they would say it is acceptable as an ICBM. It means they don't know if it would launch successfully or blow up.