Editor’s Note: The following is a report of the Centre for Eastern Studies, Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia, on the changes in the Ukrainian army since the launch of the Russian aggression.
The annexation of Crimea by Russia and the first weeks of the war in the Donbas revealed what Ukraine’s armed forces were in reality – a petrified structure, incapable of any effective action in the face of minimal enemy engagement. A considerable section of the armed forces’ personnel gradually became aware of whom they were representing only in the course of the conflict and it was not rare that from the perspective of service in one of post-Soviet military districts they sided with Russia.
