Key Points and Summary – Nearly four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine faces a worsening manpower crunch.
-In Vylkove on the Danube delta, men aged 25–60 hide from draft officers; some flee across the river to Romania, with drownings reported.
T-84 Tank Ukraine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Prosecutors have opened roughly 290,000 desertion or AWOL cases since 2022 as casualties mount and commanders warn of gaps along the front.
-The town’s Old Believer Lipovan roots and a history of shifting borders fuel distrust of the state.
-Labor shortages push women into fishing and other formerly male jobs, while families cope with loss and trauma—grim signs of a long war’s social strain.
Ukraine’s Next Big Crisis: A Manpower Shortage?
It has been almost four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv is determined to keep morale up, but it has a vast and growing problem: a dwindling number of soldiers available to fight.
The New York Times’ recent report from the fishing town of Vylkove on the banks of the Danube delta brought to light just how big the problem is.
A Russian drone attack on the area over the summer damaged water supplies and sewage systems.
The small city, once known as the “Venice of Ukraine” had been a minor tourism hotspot.
Now, streets that function as narrow canals are patrolled by border guard boats, while many houses are shuttered from within.
Men between 25 and 60, forbidden from leaving the country under wartime law, avoid going outside at all.
Some broke the rules and fled; others attempted the dangerous crossing into Romania, just across the Danube. A number have drowned in the attempt.
“I barely step out,” Ivan, 42, told the Times. Ivan was previously picked up by draft officers, taken to a base, and fled after three days.
He now hides at home, hoping the army does not knock a second time.
“There are women, old people, and men who try not to go out unnecessarily,” he explained to the newspaper.
Ukraine has opened around 290,000 cases of desertion or absence without leave since the war began, an indication of how costly and exhausting the conflict has become. Commanders warn that gaps in the front line — sometimes several hundred yards wide — are appearing as casualties mount.
But Vylkove’s protest against conscription is not just fatigue with this particular war.
The town’s chequered history has left it wary of any state.
The region, previously named Southern Bessarabia throughout various periods until the mid-20th century, has changed hands over a dozen times between empires, kingdoms, and nation states.
Despite lying close to the border with Romania, the town is mostly home to Lipovans, ethnic Russians belonging to the “Old Believer” Christian sect, pressured into exile in the 1700s.
As in many conflicts before this one, women have been forced to step into previously male-dominated professions, with many women laying out nets to aid in the gruelling fishing industry.
Before the war, they would have found it very hard to get hired in such roles, but now the city is desperate to fill labor gaps.
Many women, and others, also remain traumatised by their male family members having been killed or taken hostage in the conflict.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education. You can follow her on X: @llggeorgia.
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Swamplaw Yankee
November 13, 2025 at 3:41 am
Wow. The shill has come out of the fog, with nebulous, gossamer myths, ruuzzkie style Potemkin Village pastiche, passed out of well paid pr0-kremlin fellow travellers.
The Kremlin advised that huge cash rewards are on offer for ruuzz-shills that push their agitprop. It seems to have started.
Ah, the Danube River. A spot that history has blessed with much data. A huge delta on the Black Sea. So, this op-ed creator spots a date, 1700. So, in 1700 how many little Ukrainian boys for castration did the ruuzzkie sex-slave traders mass abduct, abuse + sell to their fav client? So, in 1700 how many little Ukrainian girls did the ruuzzkie sex-slave traders mass abduct, rape and sell to their fav client. How many “Lolita” packages of high gold value did the ruuzzkie sex-slave manage to assemble + sell to the muslim Ottoman slave buyers?
So, what exact religious pressure did these ruuzzkie Lipovans face? Did any muslim invasion forces pass over that land in the last 1000 years back since 1701? As Christians, what did these “Lipovans” exactly do when the muslims invaded? What exactly happened to the Christian Pontic Greeks who once lived around the whole Black Sea? What exactly happened to the Anglo-Saxon armada settlers that fled the Genocide of the Normans after 1066 + created Anglo-Saxon colonies around the Ukrainian Black Sea shores. They all forgot the english language for Norman French?
A great talk point is the dancing boundaries of Ukraine from the legal slave trade days of the ruuzzkie colonialists to the Kremlin Bolshevik days. Any large Ukrainian speaking ethnic territory suddenly vanish into ruzzkie control? Hmmm? no interest seems there, too.
Woman: Did not some Greek guy write about Amazon women in Ukraine like about 3000 years back? And, Bolshevik KGB officers made how many Ukrainian women die as they were forced to hand combat fight the Germans in Crimea in WW2. If Ukrainian women flinched, the ruuzzkie hand grenade was quick to explode to motivate their communist last breath.
A handsome kremlin cash reward for the avoidance on the kremlin ruuzzkie conscription. Millions of potential conscript ethnic ruuzzkie Muscovy heroes managed to evacuate from the territory controlled by their close ethnic relatives. The MSM called forth a vast cornucopia of images of cowardly Muscovy youth. This international problem was avoided any mention.
Canada was invaded by an army of draft evaders in the Vietnam War days. Refusing to reform the Mexican Cartels, these draft evaders parasited into Canada to immediately receive social benefits + take jobs away from Canadian youth. Remember, the POTUS FDR in 1039-40-41 viciously pushed Canadian lads and lasses to die and be maimed so tens of millions of Yankee cowards could cuddle close to the FDR ticket. Close to FDR they could forget the Kremlin Ruuzzkie – NAZI Hitler pact that was quite happy to kill the Canadian youth.
So, in 2025 the same 1939 scam is repeated. MAGA POTUS Trump viciously pushes a few Ukrainian Fathers to fight a billion plus human force from the PRC CCP Xi regime. Meanwhile, like POTUS FDR, WW3 does not exist in the USA as tens of millions of Yankee cowards cuddle very close to the MAGA White House exemption from conscription.
Semi-ignorant op-ed appears in US MSM such as this one. Skewed disinformation like this would never see the light of day in many EU countries. Protected by the constitution, agit-prop has the right to appear fearlessly as it seemingly collects rubles from the ruuzzkie ethnics.
Yeah, did not the Lipovans contribute the very most of anyone in Ukraine to the creation of the world’s first written constitution. Created in 1710 by the leader of Ukraine, one can speculate these ruuzzkie settlers would have freely contributed so much to this Ukrainian language constitution that the Yankees cribbed a few years later for their 13 colonies. What? Come on. The Lipovan Christians refused to speak in Ukrainian way back in 1700’s. Lipovan women + men were happy that their ruuzzkie speaking relatives were re-invading Ukraine again, + mass abducting all those Christian Ukrainian Children for very legal pedophile + legal sale to muslim Ottoman slave buyers. Hmmm, this continued for another 200 years. Lipovan Christian Old Believers vigorously protested every years that Christian boys were castrated + Christian girls raped by muslims. Or: NOT? -30-