On October 23, Liubov Halan, Head and Co-founder of Pryncyp, participated in a meeting between the President of Ukraine and representatives of civil society.
Key points we chose to emphasise:
- In the context of the Victory Plan, it is essential to understand what the defence strategy will entail, particularly regarding personnel policy within the military. We need to address two critical tasks: improving the overall condition of our military personnel, including their morale, and ensuring motivation for both current military personnel and future recruits.
Military personnel need to leave, rotate, recover, and ideally, have the option of discharge and replacement. However, all of this comes down to simple arithmetic: the manning levels of military units. In other words, effective mobilisation.
This raises a key question: how does the army’s staffing correlate with risky initiatives like economic exemptions from military service? Any attempt to improve military personnel’s welfare is directly dependent on the ability to reinforce or replace personnel. There is no room for contradictory actions or mixed messages to the public.
We were also able to strongly highlight the need to unblock military transfers, a process that likewise depends on adequate staffing. Transfers are a critical tool for maintaining military personnel motivation, even into the third year of full-scale war. - Another crucial issue: future force planning. What is the vision for the size of Ukraine’s regular army in peacetime? Will this be subject to negotiations, or will we undertake a fundamental restructuring of our reserve system? It is clear that such restructuring is necessary.
Looking ahead, we must also focus on preparing and motivating the civilian population to serve in the reserves during the interwar period.
For Pryncyp, this meeting was an opportunity to emphasise that any external strategic plan depends on internal readiness. A key domestic priority must be continued support for active-duty service members, alongside the development of a doctrine for Ukraine’s future armed forces.
