"Otherwise the country will simply collapse": Budanov spoke forcefully about the need for mobilization

The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said that Ukraine cannot meet the army’s needs solely through voluntary recruitment. He said this in an interview with The Times.

According to him, the war for independence and sovereignty requires a significant human resource, and those willing to voluntarily join the military are already insufficient to cover the army’s real needs. Kyrylo Budanov emphasized that after 12.5 years of war it is impossible to rely only on volunteers, since the country is in a state of struggle in which society as a whole is more or less involved in defending the state.

“Our side needs human resources. Recruiting volunteers is not capable of covering the numbers required by the army. Basically, there is no way to voluntarily motivate that many people after 12.5 years of war. A nationwide patriotic war, meaning everyone involved in defending the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Therefore, without mobilization it is impossible in this case,” – Budanov noted.

Separately, the head of the Office of the President commented on cases of abuse and excessive pressure during mobilization measures. He acknowledged that such situations negatively affect public perception; however, he said, it is difficult to completely avoid this under martial law.

“That there are, so to speak, excesses at the local level — it looks bad, I agree with that. We are trying to fight this and I am working on it in every possible way. But as long as there is a state of martial law and mobilization, such cases, unfortunately, will still occur. This is not something extraordinary; it happened in absolutely all countries that used the mobilization mechanism… there is no other way, otherwise the country will simply collapse,” – the head of the OP said.

Also, Kyrylo Budanov spoke about the possible involvement in mobilization of men aged 18-25 years. He warned that a mechanical decision to “take everyone” from this age group could inflict strategic harm on the country. According to him, this concerns the generation on which the future of Ukraine depends, so such decisions cannot be made solely from the perspective of the short-term needs of the front.

“If we simply by the mechanism of mobilization take all young men aged 18-25 — we will destroy the very future of our state; it is an entire generation,” – said Kyrylo Budanov.

In fact, Budanov outlined the main dilemma of the state: the army needs people, but mobilization must be carried out so as not to break society’s trust, not to provoke new conflicts, and not to erase the future of the youngest generation.

Previously we wrote:

• The Ministry of Defense wants Reserve Offices+ instead of TCC: hubs with VLK and psychological assessment
• Injuries, hematomas and death: what happened to Yevhen Lahunov after mobilization
• Budanov: without mobilization the front will fall. Calls for humane conscription and admits millions of draft dodgers
• Helped evade mobilization: in Mykolaiv the SBU came to the administrator of a Telegram channel
• A serviceman at a TCC was slashed: attackers may face life imprisonment