Ukrainian → English transcript

Foreigners recruited into the Defense Forces of Ukraine. In fact, you were also responsible for this area in the Ministry of Defense, am I correct?

Yes.

Why do you think this system, this program, is still not utilized as a fully-fledged recruitment mechanism?

Why do we have the results we have? Because there is a feeling that a much larger number of people could have been involved.

The biggest problem with recruitment is availability—it's our linguistic capabilities.

Everyone knows that the foreigners serving in the Armed Forces are predominantly Spanish speakers.

There are very few tactical-level commanders who could train and command Spanish speakers.

And this is the main limiting factor.

I think everyone understands that we have an AWOL problem in the Armed Forces.

Why does it exist? Because tactical-level commanders, who are Ukrainian-speaking, cannot find common ground with Ukrainians,

find a common language, persuasion doesn't work, there are issues, and so on.

And now, on top of this problem, add the absence of a person, a commander who will communicate, because he simply doesn't know the language.

This is the biggest problem. If we manage to solve this problem, we can seriously improve the performance.

What steps have been taken to solve this problem?

An analysis of our linguistic capabilities has been conducted, and the number of people and specific individuals have been identified.

This was completed right after the conditions—I launched it, and the results came after my departure.

People who are ready to serve in units with foreigners have been identified.

Unfortunately, they mostly know English, while the foreigners who want to serve with us and are English-speaking,

there are significantly fewer of them than Spanish, Portuguese, or French speakers.

As for the mechanisms for engagement, they are currently in place.