Ukraine makes draft push for men
Halts consular services for those overseas
Ukraine on Tuesday suspended consular services for military-age men abroad except ones to help them return to their home country, dramatically stepping up its effort to boost conscription in the war against Russia.
Hundreds of thousands of militaryage Ukrainian men are living abroad and the country faces an acute shortage of troops against a larger, betterequipped enemy nearly 26 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement that he had ordered measures to be taken to restore what he described as fair treatment for men of mobilization age.
“How it looks like now: A man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state,” he said on X.
“It does not work this way. Our country is at war.”
Kuleba said the foreign ministry would clarify the procedure for militaryage men to obtain consular services soon.
“Staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the homeland,” Kuleba said.
Some 4.3 million Ukrainians were living in European Union countries as of January, about 860,000 of them adult men, the Eurostat database estimated.
Ukraine imposed martial law at the start of the full-scale war, banning men aged 18 to 60 from traveling abroad without special dispensation and beginning a rolling mobilization of civilian men into the armed forces.
A Ukrainian man living in Warsaw, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone he thought the suspension would alienate citizens loyal to Kyiv.
Another Ukrainian, 21-year-old Anatoly Nezgoduk, who is studying in Canada, said: “I understand very well that there is a war in our country, so I can’t call this move weird, illegal or incorrect. In a way, this distances me from Ukraine’s official representation abroad.”
Some military analysts say the shortage of manpower is Ukraine’s most significant battlefield weakness. It also faces an acute lack of artillery shells, although Kyiv hopes U.S. military aid will replenish its stocks soon.
There have been numerous cases of draft dodgers trying to flee the country.
The border guard service said it had detained eight men trying to cross into Hungary illegally on Tuesday.
The state passport service said the issuance of ready-made passports had also been suspended for “technical reasons” for all citizens abroad except children under the age of 12.
A foreign ministry helpline said the suspension of consular services would remain in place until clarification on how to implement the new law overhauling the way the mobilization effort is conducted.
The law, which comes into effect next month, aims to improve and speed up the way the military mobilizes civilians into the armed force.
The law will require all military-age men to report to draft offices to update their papers, remotely or in person within 60 days. Military-age men abroad would need those papers to receive consular services.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, predicted the suspension of consular services would not be a very efficient way to get people to update their personal data for military papers.
“But sooner or later many men will have to choose whether they will confirm their Ukrainian citizenship. Some part of people will delay, they will use corrupt ways and consular services abroad will earn good money on it,” he said.
US preparing $1B weapons package for Ukraine, officials say
The United States was preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the Ukraine-Israel bill that was being debated Tuesday in the Senate, two U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The aid package includes vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield, the officials said.
On Saturday, the House passed the package of four foreign aid bills, one providing $61 billion for Ukraine, a second with $26 billion for Israel, a third with $8.12 billion “to counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific and a fourth that includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.
Russia to step up strikes on Western weapons in Ukraine
Russia will intensify strikes on Ukrainian storage bases that house Westernsupplied weapons, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.
In remarks to defense officials, Shoigu said Russia had “dispelled the myth of the superiority of Western weapons” and its forces had gained the initiative along the 600-mile front.
He referenced the fact that Washington was poised to supply Ukraine with a new military aid package.
“In proportion to the threats posed by the United States and its allies, we will continue to improve the composition and structure of the Armed Forces and increase the production of the most popular weapons and military equipment,” Shoigu said.
“We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and storage bases for Western weapons.”
Shoigu repeated Russia’s assertion that it has captured the villages of Pervomaiske, Bohdanivka and Novomykhailivka this month. On Monday, a Ukrainian commander denied the fall of the latter, saying his troops held 15% to 20% of the village.
The Russian defense ministry said Russian marines involved in the operation to take Novomykhailivka had captured Western-made weapons, including Swedish grenade launchers, American anti-tank Javelins and NATO electronic warfare systems.