Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief denies President Zelensky's claim of mobilizing half a million troops
(Baonghean.vn) - According to Ria Novosti, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said on Rada TV on December 26 that the Military Command did not request the mobilization of 500,000 troops as President Volodymyr Zelensky declared.
At his year-end press conference on December 19, President Zelensky said he had been asked by the General Staff to mobilize an additional 450,000-500,000 troops. President Zelensky estimated the cost of this mobilization at 500 billion hryvnia (equivalent to 13.4 billion USD). Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov said that this process would take at least a year.
Commenting on the above statements, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said, "The Military Command did not make any requests regarding the number of troops or anything like that."
At the same time, General Zaluzhny admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have certain human resource needs to compensate for shortages and create new military units. However, the general refused to give specific figures, explaining that this is a state secret.
Former Ukrainian parliamentarian Dmitry Razumkov said the new law on military mobilization in Ukraine will not solve any of the country's problems. Mr. Razumkov said that there are bills that can use the win-win principle, but this is a bill that uses the lose-lose principle.
At the same time, according to Mr. Razumkov, the issue of building a mobilization system has not been resolved. Ukrainian lawmakers are trying to do this in a very short period of time, although this part of the work needs 2 years to complete./.
