Back in 2022, many people assumed, including U.S. officials and other credible thinkers, that if Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv would fall in a matter of days. After Ukraine proved unexpectedly resilient, there has been a rush to learn the lessons of Kyiv’s approach to war.
But while outsiders have focused on technological innovation such as drones and robots, Ukrainians say that military success is still built on a human foundation. Recruiting, and motivating, soldiers is an increasingly tough task in the fifth year of the war—especially as Ukraine battles demoralizing Russian propaganda. Despite moments like the seizure of a Russian position through unmanned vehicles, defending the homeland still needs human beings—and lots of them.
Back in 2022, many people assumed, including U.S. officials and other credible thinkers, that if Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv would fall in a matter of days. After Ukraine proved unexpectedly resilient, there has been a rush to learn the lessons of Kyiv’s approach to war.
But while outsiders have focused on technological innovation such as drones and robots, Ukrainians say that military success is still built on a human foundation. Recruiting, and motivating, soldiers is an increasingly tough task in the fifth year of the war—especially as Ukraine battles demoralizing Russian propaganda. Despite moments like the seizure of a Russian position through unmanned vehicles, defending the homeland still needs human beings—and lots of them.
“When people saw what could be achieved with unmanned vehicles, we saw some suggestions that wars could be fought without personnel,” said Olesia Horiainova, a co-founder of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center (USCC). “It’s a nice idea, but to hold territory and to operate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and UGVs [unmanned ground vehicles], you need people physically there.”
At least in theory, Ukraine has plenty of available manpower. As of 2026, its armed forces has around 900,000 active personnel, with a few million more in reserve.
The vast majority of those currently serving in Ukraine are men ages 25 to 60 who have been conscripted—unsurprising in a country currently fending off the largest invasion force in Europe since the end of World War II. These fighters have defied the odds and defended Ukraine under enormous pressure. Conscription does not extend to women, though more than 70,000 serve in the country’s armed forces.
But multiple military officials in Ukraine, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of their work, said four years of war have taken a toll on national morale and led to some tension between civilians and the armed forces. This includes skepticism of the conscription process—a problem for a country in need of fighters.
Their advice to countries that have the luxury of rebuilding armies in peacetime is simple: Willing recruits make better soldiers. Pavlo Zaichenko, the head of the 59th Brigade communications unit, said that even among those who are willing to serve when conscripted, “many are concerned that they could be reassigned to a different position in the military and might not be allowed to serve in the role they originally chose.”
Zaichenko said that for many, joining the forces means “giving up their familiar life for an undefined period of time” and leaving behind family, a stable job, and housing. In peacetime, conscription is inherently limited, but that changes in war. “When there is no clear understanding of where one will serve, how the service will look, and how long it will last, this becomes a significant barrier for potential volunteers,” Zaichenko added.
Multiple Ukrainian sources stated that patriotism alone isn’t sufficient.
“Every person has different motivations. I am from a part of Ukraine where there has been intense fighting, so for me, I just wanted to protect my home,” said Maksym Horbunov, a 2nd Rank naval captain and the head of naval recruitment.
“But the armed forces is now the biggest employer in Ukraine. It is reasonable, with all the uncertainty of what happens even after the war, that people understand what their career progression might be, what benefits they might get,” he added. Multiple people involved in both recruitment and conscription said that too often these issues were not addressed upfront.
Nearly everyone I spoke to acknowledged that civilian relations with the armed forces have become strained and the motivation to fight is often lacking. That is reflected in recent reports of desertion and fighters going AWOL. Official numbers are hard to come by, but PBS recently reported that as many as 150,000 service members may be missing from their units. Soldiers cite a number of reasons for this.
With no end in sight and heavy shelling and strikes of cities even beyond the front line, war fatigue is growing. But it’s not the only problem. Distrust in the armed forces is rising, with people swapping stories of negative experiences with the army. That could be heavy-handed troops rounding up conscripts or poor treatment from colleagues once they are serving. “Sometimes one personal story outweighs dozens of well-prepared and professional communication efforts,” Zaichenko said.
Russia’s enormous disinformation network has also targeted morale. According to USCC research, there has been a deliberate and concerted effort by Russian information actors to “influence the internal situation in Ukraine, demoralise the population, and disrupt mobilisation and recruitment processes in order to undermine the state’s defence capabilities.” Disinformation usually starts on social media or apps such as Telegram and filters through into the wider media landscape.
Russia’s propaganda sticks to familiar themes: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a traitor who is paying for his errors with the blood of troops, and he must be removed if you want the war to end; wealthy elites are paying their way to avoid military service, leaving average Ukrainians to suffer; going AWOL is a legitimate form of protest, but returning will leave you a slave to the army; Ukraine is already a failed state doomed to economic and political ruin; etc.
The best propaganda usually has a grain of truth to it, and if you look for it, you can find examples of people paying bribes to avoid service or being punished for going AWOL. However, during the course of the war, Ukraine has passed laws that decriminalized or gave amnesty to first-time deserters. Indeed, some in the country believe that the lack of punishment for those abandoning their units has played an outsized role in the number going AWOL.
Experts and officials believe these narratives can be countered through positive communication and dispelling such myths, but they also accept that the official response has been slow.
The lesson Ukrainians want allies to take from all this is that mobilization, the bulking of reserves, and recruitment drives should happen in times of peace—not just when a war starts. The public needs to be told the truth from day one about what service looks like: You might be deployed somewhere dangerous and end up doing a job you didn’t want. But you will also be looked after, paid well, and receive benefits for your service, and you can build a real career, leaning on your existing professional skills. At a time of such uncertainty, that is supremely valuable.
Motivated troops make for better soldiers. It is clearly better to have people fighting beside you who want to be there—not just for the short term. There is a real possibility that in the coming years, European armed forces will swell in size—both in full-time regular service members and reservists. Peacetime affords you the luxury of transparency and doing things on your own terms.
