On January 15, in a report sent to parliament, newly appointed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov exposed serious loopholes in the personnel work of the Ukrainian army.
Accordingly, the country's armed forces are facing 200,000 cases of desertion. More seriously, it is estimated that up to 2 million people are seeking to evade military service in various forms.
Mr. Fedorov frankly pointed out that the military is being restrained by old-style management thinking and a cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus, making it difficult to adapt to modern conflict.
The Ministry of Defense is also facing a budget deficit of up to 6.9 billion USD. "We cannot fight in a new technology conflict with an outdated organizational structure," Fedorov emphasized before lawmakers.
Human resource difficulties became even more serious when the "winter enemy" rushed in.
On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky had to officially declare a state of emergency in the energy sector. This decision was made when nighttime temperatures in many cities had dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius, while power systems were heavily damaged by Russian attacks.
The state of emergency will allow the government to have additional special powers to coordinate power sources and increase rapid energy imports from Europe.
External pressure and internal difficulties have flared the solidarity of Kiev leaders. President Zelensky publicly criticized the capital's government for being negligent in preventing the cold for the people.
In response, Mayor Vitali Klitschko strongly protested, saying that these accusations are unfounded and hurt the efforts of thousands of employees who are on duty 24/7 to restore the heating system.
On the diplomatic front, pressure on Kiev has not decreased at all. US President Donald Trump in his latest interview made unfavorable comments for Ukraine.
He shared that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready for a peace agreement, while the Ukrainian side is showing less goodwill. This assessment is completely contrary to the views of European allies, but puts more burden on the Zelensky administration in seeking support from the US.
To solve the "one-in-one" situation, the European Union (EU) is considering easing regulations on the 90 billion Euro loan, allowing Ukraine to use this capital to buy weapons from non-bloc suppliers to compensate for the shortage of equipment on the battlefield.
