The total strength of the Ukrainian Defense Forces is about 1 million people, but 300,000 servicemen are involved in combat operations. These figures were cited by MP from the "Servant of the People" faction and member of the National Security Committee Marianna Bezuhla. The MP wonders what the other 700,000 military personnel are doing, which cost the state budget UAH 168 billion a year.
"Can someone give me an objective reason why there are about a million in the defense forces now, and ~300 thousand are fighting? What are the other 700,000 doing?" - she wrote on Telegram.
According to her, this number of servicemen costs UAH 12 billion a month to maintain, and this is the money of Ukrainian taxpayers, not Western partners.
Bezuhla also notes that with such a large number of soldiers, some brigades, such as the airborne assault brigade, have not had a rotation for three years, and only the wounded and killed can come home "for a long rest." Moreover, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the deputy writes, claims that rotation is impossible.
Bezuhla goes on to argue that these 700,000 soldiers can be engaged in rear support and asks why civilians cannot be engaged for such tasks.
"Why can't we engage civilian contractors for many rear operations? Servicemen would be released for additional training and further combat missions while replacing their comrades-in-arms who are waiting for recovery," the MP reflects.
In her post, she also cites the example of the Russian troops, who have been building defense structures for a year, using civilian contractors. And at the same time, no one prevented them from doing so, because, according to Bezuhla, the Ukrainian command did not set such tasks for the soldiers.
"We just watched. Later, I visited one of the brigades where they tried to prevent them from doing this with drones purely out of enthusiasm. Because there were no such tasks from the command!" - the MP writes.
In addition, Bezuhla raises the issue of rotation, suggesting that some fighters from the front line be returned to the rear to deal with mobilization, and that TCC employees be sent to the front to gain combat experience.
"I have discussed all this with our iron man (presumably Valeriy Zaluzhnyi) and his General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine more than once and for months, but there is zero reaction. Now I'm looking at how to write it in the law. And I will defend it," Bezuhla emphasized.
