Cold reception on Ukraine’s front line for new Zelensky measures on conscription
UKRAINIAN soldiers have criticised the country’s new conscription law for failing to include the demobilisation of long-serving personnel.
It had been hoped that the bill, which has been the subject of heated debate, would have paved the way for the demobilisation of soldiers after 36 months of service.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, had previously promised that conscripts would start being demobilised “from April”.
However, the provision was removed from the final version of the mobilisation bill by Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Maksym Nesmyanov, an officer in
Ukraine’s border guards, wrote on Facebook: “This is a disaster. How could it be possible to promise demobilisation to soldiers from December 2023, only to abandon them at the end. You can’t take away hope from soldiers that they will return home.”
The mobilisation bill comes as the Ukrainian president considers proposals from his armed forces to draft another 500,000 men for the war against Russia. Last month, General Syrsky said the number of additional conscripts being requested had been “significantly reduced”.
At the same time, Ukraine’s leadership has warned that Russia is preparing to mobilise 300,000 more men.
Kyiv is struggling to find sufficient numbers of volunteers to replace exhausted soldiers who have been fighting for more than two years. Providing potential recruits and serving personnel with an end date to their military service was seen as key to attracting more volunteers.
Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s defence and intelligence committee, said the demobilisation provisions were removed from the bill after two months of wrangling.
The Kyiv Independent outlet reported that provisions on demobilisation and rotation of military personnel will be developed separately from the main bill.
Ahead of the vote on the draft law today, measures to punish draft dodgers were seemingly watered down with fines and driving bans for draft dodgers rather than prison sentences.