The Verkhovna Rada of Kyiv (the Ukrainian unicameral parliament) approved this Thursday a law that toughens the conditions for future military mobilizations. The text of the rule is controversial, because it has been consciously decided not to set a period for mobilized soldiers to return from the battle front.
283 deputies voted in favor. Against, one. 49 abstained.
The rule that would allow the soldiers currently mobilized and defending positions against Russian troops to return home soon was eliminated from the document. In the project to reform the conditions of military mobilizations in Ukraine, a clause had been included so that soldiers could request demobilization after 36 months of service.
This clause is currently suspended. According to Ukrainian media, the National Security Commission of the Rada made the decision to exclude her in response to the position of the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Alexander Sirsky, who in a letter to the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, indicated that The issue of discharge from military service should be considered in a separate bill.
According to Sirski, “some provisions of the bill (…) require more detailed analysis and additional study,” Strana.ua quotes.
The Ukrainian Army, weakened by a failed counteroffensive during the summer of 2023 and dwindling Western aid, is trying to contain Russian attacks at multiple points along the front.
In addition, it faces a shortage of volunteer soldiers. In the first weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of what Moscow calls a “special military operation,” in an explosion of patriotism hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians volunteered to serve on the front.
But more than two years later many of those first recruits are dead, injured or simply exhausted, and the military needs to fill the ranks with new soldiers. By now, most of those who want to fight have already enlisted, and Kyiv has to recruit from a much more reluctant group of men.
With the new reform, from now on the sanctions for those who try to avoid the mobilization will also be toughened.
This controversial bill has been in the works for months. In the amendment process, two regulations that were considered scandalous were also removed from the bill: one on the obligation of all military personnel to have a digital account through which subpoenas would be sent, and another on the blocking of accounts input banking.
Faced with the need to recruit more men, Ukraine has previously tried to widen the mobilization by lowering the age of those summoned from 27 to 25 years, a rule signed on April 2 by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. This decision had been expected for months, since the Rada approved it in May 2023.
Last December Zelensky said that the then head of the Army, General Valeri Zaluzhni, had asked to incorporate 500,000 new soldiers into the Armed Forces. The Ukrainian president assured that so many are not necessary. And last March, in an interview with Ukrinform, current commander-in-chief Sirski stated that “that figure has been significantly reduced,” following an audit of internal resources and a study of the military structure.
The president of the Rada must send Zelensky the new law approved this Thursday. It will come into force one month after the Ukrainian president promulgates it, that is, expectedly in mid-May.
