Government tells about need to mobilize 500,000 people. This thesis was called reason for Zaluzhnyi's dismissal

In Ukraine, the rate of mobilization has been decreasing for the second month. Since the end of spring, when the law on mobilization came into effect, it was planned to call up 200,000 people to the army, but now these numbers seem insufficient to the authorities.

Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said this on the air of the Priamyi TV channel.

The rate of mobilization decreased in September. In October, the authorities tried to improve the indicators, but in general, the trend is towards a decrease in mobilization.

The MP emphasized that this cannot be allowed under any circumstances. According to him, the decrease in the level of mobilization will result in a big problem, it will be impossible to catch up with the process.

Kostenko also recalled how, at the end of 2023, the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi declared the need to mobilize 500,000 people.

The MP admitted that taking into account today's figures and which army needs replenishment, Zaluzhnyi's figure is more relevant.

"All the same, I come to the opinion that Zaluzhnyi did not take those numbers from the ceiling. I rather agree with him here that after all, such a number is more relevant than what we gather, than what we were told before that we don't need that," Kostenko said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in December 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, initiated the mobilization of 500,000 people.

At the end of January 2024, Zelenskyy said in an interview with foreign media that he saw no reason to call up 500,000 people to the army.

At the same time, according to the American publication The Washington Post, disagreements on the issue of additional mobilization allegedly became one of the reasons for Zaluzhnyi's dismissal.

We also wrote that in July of this year, Zelenskyy stated that there are 14 brigade-level units in the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They cannot participate in battles due to lack of weapons.