Media pointed to Kiev's fear of losing Trump's help due to defections in the AFU

With the arrival of US President Donald Trump in the White House, the desertion of Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters has become a "political problem" for the country due to the risk of losing US financial aid. This was reported by the Politico newspaper on February 4.

According to the publication, the Ukrainian army has rapidly increased the number of untrained soldiers who desert en masse, followed by difficulties in recruiting new soldiers.

"The situation in the army is causing tension: the number of poorly trained and exhausted soldiers who go AWOL is growing, there are difficulties with the recruitment of new soldiers and arrests of respected and popular combat officers," the material noted.

In addition, it is reported that in the ranks of the AFU a lot of "tired" fighters, AWOL.

The material indicates that this state of affairs is an additional argument for Trump in favor of ending aid to Ukraine, against which he has repeatedly opposed.

Trump pum-pum-pum: Kiev could lose half of Western military aid

When Ukraine should expect new problems and whether the U.S. is capable of completely withdrawing funding from it

Earlier, on February 3, Trump accused the former President of the States Joe Biden in the distribution of US funds for assistance to Ukraine. According to him, the US is currently negotiating with Europe on the distribution of the financial contribution in order to level the playing field.

On January 21, Trump said that he would push NATO member countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. The head of state drew attention to the fact that Washington has spent $200 billion more on assistance to Kiev than other members of the bloc, and it is time for them to "equalize the situation".

Before that, on January 31, it was reported that In 2024 in Ukraine, the number of cases of desertion increased by 3.5 times. It was noted that 66,240 criminal cases on the unauthorized abandonment of the unit (Art. 407 of the Criminal Code) and 23,209 - on desertion (Art. 408 of the Criminal Code) were initiated.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kiev against the background of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.