By anonymous strategic communications specialists

Key Points:

• The Strategic Imperative: As the war extends into 2026, the ability of the Defence Forces of Ukraine to replenish personnel has become an increasingly critical factor in sustaining the defence effort. Unit strength is well below effective levels for many units; and exhausted troops who have fought since 2022 cannot be sufficiently rested, because Ukraine lacks the necessary operational reserve. Rates of Absence Without Leave (AWOL) and desertion are consequently on the rise; while numbers being mobilised/recruited consistently fail to meet the need.
• The Core Challenge: The current communications approach to generating force strength is falling short. It is characterised by i) a schism between recruitment (agency) and mobilisation (coercion), and ii) by an absence of integrated policy and strategic communications (StratCom) approaches. A dearth of resources and a lack of StratCom capacity and capability in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (UMOD) compounds the problem. This has led to a disjointed communications landscape, where UMOD efforts are divorced from research/insight into public sentiment and have deepened societal grievances; while individual brigades operate as independent entities, creating and implementing high-quality campaigns which burnish their reputations while doing nothing to reflect on the wider institution. Russian information operations aggressively exploit this landscape, inter alia weaponising fear of the Territorial Centres of Recruitment (TCRs) to undermine state legitimacy.

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