"I don't want to be a populist — I want to be a realist," Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

"The Ministry of Defense is coming into my hands with a [$6.7 million] shortfall, two million Ukrainians who are wanted and 200,000 who are AWOL."

Ukrainska Pravda reports the number of desertions is significantly higher, nearly 300,000.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned into a four-year-long war of attrition. As a much larger country, Russia has been slowly winning the conflict.

Ukraine's manpower issues have been previously documented, but a public admission from a top official is rare.