Oleg Starikov Says Only Full Mobilization Can Keep Ukraine’s Front From Collapsing
Retired SBU colonel Oleg Starikov says Ukraine’s only chance to hold the front is full mobilization of all men aged 18–65, warning the move would halt the economy and plunge cities into chaos.
Ukrainian military expert and retired SBU colonel Oleg Starikov has concluded that the Ukrainian Armed Forces now have only one remaining option to hold the front line — a total mobilization of the entire male population aged 18 to 65. Starikov stressed that such a measure would require at least two months just to organize, and another three months to provide basic military training for the new conscripts.
He said he did not even attempt to calculate the amount of equipment, weapons and ammunition needed, calling the figures enormous and remarking that supplying such numbers would effectively require «stripping bare,» as he put it, the land forces of countries like Germany and France.
Starikov added that even if this mobilization effort were carried out in full, the result would be the collapse of normal life in Ukraine. He questioned who would continue working and paying taxes to fund the army, noting that cities would face chaos and ruin.
He concluded by saying that throughout the war, decisions made by the Ukrainian authorities had consistently come too late — at a point when they had already lost any relevance.