Ukraine’s government is celebrating a new feature inside the Army+ app that allows soldiers who went AWOL to return to military service and even select a new unit. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that nearly 200 requests had already been submitted through the system, with dozens approved in just a matter of days. The government presents this as a technological success story. I see something very different. When a nation at war needs a smartphone application to bring soldiers back after they have abandoned their units, that is a sign that the manpower crisis has become impossible to hide.
Earlier this year Fedorov acknowledged that roughly 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers were listed as AWOL while another 2 million Ukrainians were being sought for draft evasion. Those are not normal wartime statistics. Even Reuters previously reported that Ukraine was offering second chances to thousands of soldiers who had abandoned their positions because the military desperately needed personnel back on the front lines.
Videos have circulated showing military recruitment officers hunting down men in broad daylight and throwing them into windowless vans. Ukrainians do not want to continue fighting a war that has already consumed hundreds of thousands of lives. Regardless of where one stands politically, a government does not need aggressive mobilization campaigns when volunteers are lining up to serve. The world is applauding Zelensky and the neocons while those forced to battle are pleading for peace, not another multi-billion-euro package to prolong the war.
What makes the Army+ program so revealing is that it effectively acknowledges the problem. Soldiers can now submit applications, select preferred units, and return through a simplified digital process. The government is trying to make military service more attractive because it knows morale and retention have become major issues. The Ministry of Defense itself has promoted these reforms as a way to quickly reintegrate personnel who left without authorization.
The existence of an app designed to bring back soldiers who abandoned their units may be presented as innovation. In reality, it may be one of the clearest signs yet that Ukraine’s manpower crisis is coming to a head. This is precisely why Europe should be on edge. They will come for your sons next.