KYIV, Ukraine — The best way to describe Ukrainian morale right now is that it is flickering. On the front lines, exhausted troops are bearing the brunt of more than two years of war with minimal breaks. At home, the living situation is deteriorating, with power outages triggered by Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure causing lights to blink on and off daily, a visual reminder of the stalemated war.
Frontline Struggles and Homefront Realities
The two situations are interconnected. The homefront contains the pool of men needed for another mobilization. Ukraine’s only way to change the battlefield situation is to relieve the bone-tired soldiers and mobilize tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of new, able-bodied recruits to continue the country’s defense.
Fortunately, the arrival of more aid and ammunition, paid in large part by the $61 billion military aid package passed by Congress earlier this year, is already making a difference on both fronts.
Increased Mobilization Efforts
More than two years into the war, finding new, healthy men to send to the front is becoming increasingly difficult. In April, the administration of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy passed new rules aimed at increasing the number of men it can call up, including reducing the draft age from 27 to 25. The government now requires all men between 18 and 60 to update their contact information with the Ukrainian military and carry formal registration documents at all times.
The administration has made this requirement easy to do and hard to evade. Despite the blackouts, Ukraine leads the world in providing government services through digital apps on mobile phones, including a mobilization app called Reserv+. More than a million people have updated their data for mobilization through the app, according to Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of strategic industries.
Challenges of New Mobilization
The new mobilization isn’t exactly popular. Those eager to battle the Russians volunteered swiftly; the new rules are aimed at recruiting those who were initially less enthusiastic about combat roles. Since the new rules went into effect, for the first time since the start of the invasion, police have been stopping random men on the street in Kyiv to ask for proof of their conscription status. Many military-aged men don’t feel comfortable leaving their homes, worried they will be immediately shipped off to military training if caught without the proper digital or physical papers.
While the vast majority of Ukrainians support their military, it’s a different story when the government asks one’s husband, father, brother, or son to put their life on the line for the cause, especially if there’s a fear they won’t have adequate equipment and ammunition.
Impact of U.S. Military Aid
There’s evidence that the arrival of fresh U.S. aid is helping ease these fears. POLITICO Magazine partnered with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology to conduct a national poll on how the U.S. aid package affected Ukrainian perceptions of the mass mobilization. More than 30 percent of Ukrainians said that Congress’ passage of the legislation made them more likely to make the personal, family, and community sacrifices for greater mobilization of Ukrainian men into the Armed Forces.
From a strategic perspective, the new aid has been a game-changer. Equipment pre-staged in Europe for the possibility that the bill would pass immediately began streaming into the country. The $61 billion package included $25.7 billion to replace U.S. equipment being sent to Ukraine and to develop the American industrial base, $17 billion for training and arming Ukrainian forces, $2.5 billion in humanitarian aid, and nearly $8 billion in loans to Ukraine to pay for government services.
Bolstering Defense and Morale
Specifically, the aid included Patriot missile system interceptors to harden air defenses for the country’s energy infrastructure and prevent the power crisis from worsening. It also brought in much-needed ammunition such as 155mm artillery rounds.
“It’s really, really badly needed ammunition,” said George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “Throughout late 2023 and the first few months of 2024, the [Ukrainian] guns fell silent because they just physically ran out of ammunition.” Before the passage of the American aid package, the ratio of artillery shells being fired on the frontline was 10 to 1, in favor of the Russians, Sak said.
“When it was passed, it immediately translated into the boost of morale on the front lines,” he added.
Civilian Perspective and Future Hopes
Though equipment and funds don’t win wars, well-equipped and trained soldiers do. “There’s a symbiotic relationship between manpower and materiel,” Barros said. “It’s much easier to be able to recruit men and have those men be enthusiastic about serving if they know that they’re going to be properly equipped.”
In the capital city, rolling power outages are dealt with by monitoring an app that gives a heads-up about losing electricity. Despite these challenges, many Ukrainians remain determined to win the war. They aim to find an equitable end and an honorable peace worthy of the sacrifices and deaths of the last two years.
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