Ukraine’s parliament passes law to boost much-needed conscripts
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday passed a controversial law on how the country will call up new soldiers at a time when it needs to replenish depleted forces that are increasingly struggling to fend off Russia’s advance.
The law was passed against a backdrop of an escalating Russian campaign that has devastated Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks. Authorities said overnight missile and drone attacks completely destroyed the Trypilska
thermal power plant, the largest power-generating facility in the region of the country’s capital.
Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion captured nearly a quarter of Ukraine, the stakes could not be higher for Kyiv. After a string of victories in the first year of the war, fortunes have turned for the Ukrainian military, which is dug in, outgunned and outnumbered.
The country desperately needs more troops — and more ammunition — at a time when doubts about the supply of Western aid are increasing.
The mobilization law was first envisioned after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to gain significant ground last year — and authorities realized the country was in for a longer fight.
In December, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military wanted to mobilize up to 500,000 more troops. Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has since revised that figure down because soldiers can be rotated from the rear. But officials have not said how many are needed.
The law — which was watered down from its original draft — will make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country, where many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.
Under the law, men aged 18 to 60 will be required to carry documents showing they have registered with the military and present them when asked, according to Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst for the watchdog group Center for United Actions. Also, any man who applies for a state service at a consulate abroad will be registered for military service.
However, it remains unclear how the measure will ensure all draft-eligible men are registered.
In that way, it “does not fulfill the main declared goal,” she said.
The law also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car — perks that Ms. Zabolotna said Ukraine can not afford.
It’s not clear how many new conscripts the law might lead to — and it’s also unclear whether Ukraine, with its ongoing ammunition shortages, would be able to arm large numbers of new soldiers without a fresh injection of Western aid.
In total, 1 million Ukrainians are in uniform, including about 300,000 who are serving on the front lines.
Lawmakers dragged their feet for months over the mobilization law, and it is expected to be unpopular. It comes about a week after Ukraine lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25.
The law will become effective a month after Mr. Zelenskyy signs it — and it’s unclear if and when he will. It took him months to sign the law reducing conscription age.
Earlier this month, Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst at the Center for Applied Political Studies “Penta,” said the law is crucial for Ukraine’s ability to keep up the fight against Russia, even though it is painful for the society.
“A large part of the people do not want their loved ones to go to the front, but at the same time they want Ukraine to win,” he said.
Thursday’s vote came after the parliamentary defense committee removed a key provision from the bill that would rotate out troops who had served 36 months of combat. Lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said in a Telegram post that he was shocked by the move.
The committee instructed the Defense Ministry to draft a separate bill on demobilization, news reports cited ministry spokesperson Dmytro Lazutkin as saying.
Exhausted soldiers, on the front lines since Russia invaded in February 2022, currently have no means of rotating out for rest. But considering the scale and intensity of the war, devising a system of rest will prove difficult.