Draft law on mobilization to provide over 300 thousand recruits - FT
Kyiv • UNN
The new mobilization law aims to find more than 300,000 recruits to replace the exhausted soldiers currently on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to sources cited by The Financial Times.
The new law on mobilization should help to find more than 300 thousand recruits to replace the exhausted military who are now on the battlefield, the Financial Times writes, citing its own sources in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, UNN reports.
Details
It is noted that the law is aimed at updating the country's legal framework ahead of an expected wave of mobilization this year, during which up to 500,000 people may be called up.
At the same time, the publication found out that the efforts are currently focused on 330,000 exhausted soldiers who are currently on the battlefield. According to the ministry, the rest of the recruits will replace losses and meet other military needs depending on the situation on the battlefield.
However, this law turned out to be quite controversial, as Ukrainian lawmakers made more than 4,000 amendments to the first draft.
The FT noted that two years ago, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion , many Ukrainians volunteered to defend their country. But this pool has been exhausted, and a significant number of men of fighting age are unwilling to go to the front.
So far, only those who are 27 years old have been mobilized, and the average age of soldiers on the battlefield was around 40. The journalists explain that Ukraine has a significantly smaller younger population due to a drop in the birth rate after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Against this backdrop, the proposal to lower the age of mobilization to 25 caused a wave of outrage, saying that it would be suicide for the nation to send the youngest to the trenches.
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Addendum
As the FT writes , data on the male population of Ukraine released by the parliamentary committee on economy shows that out of 11.1 million Ukrainian men aged 25 to 60, only about 3.7 million are eligible for mobilization.
Other men are either at war, disabled, abroad, or considered critical workers.
At the same time, the government is aware of the need to act cautiously so as not to push taxpayers to flee abroad or go into hiding, depriving Kyiv of much-needed revenue.
It is noted that the main reasons why men refuse to be mobilized are fear of death and disability. In addition, some respondents , according to the Info Sapiens study, are afraid of insufficient training before being sent to the front, lack of weapons, and, most importantly, an indefinite period of military service.
The publication noted that the new law on mobilization aims to address these problems. The initial draft envisages a service period of three years and a minimum of three months of training.
Meanwhile, some brigades have begun to advertise on their own that volunteers can choose positions according to their skills in an attempt to speed up recruitment.
Recall
A Verkhovna Rada committee voted to exclude from the draft law on mobilization such restrictions as freezing accounts, bank cards, and driving restrictions for those who evade the draft.
