News and Politics • Re: UKRAINE WAR - 2024 thread

KYIV, April 2 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a bill on Tuesday to lower the mobilisation age for combat duty from 27 to 25, a move that should help Ukraine generate more fighting power in its war with Russia.

The bill had been on Zelenskiy's table since it was approved by lawmakers in May 2023, and it was not immediately clear what prompted him to sign it. Parliament has been discussing a separate bill to broadly tighten draft rules for months.

The move expands the number of civilians the army can mobilise into its ranks to fight under martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian troops are on the back foot on the battlefield, facing a shortage of ammunition supplies with vital funding from the U.S. blocked by Republicans in Congress for months and the European Union failing to deliver promised ammunition on time.

The signing of the legislation was not immediately announced by the president's office. Parliament merely updated the entry for the bill on its website to read: "returned with the signature of the president of Ukraine".

Zelenskiy said last winter that he would only sign the bill if he was given a strong enough argument of the need to do so.

The Ukrainian leader said in December that the military had proposed mobilising up to 500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces, something he said then-commander of the armed forces had asked for.

Since then, Ukraine has changed the head of the armed forces and the new chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last week that the figure was no longer up-to-date and that it had been "significantly reduced" after a review of resources.

Zelenskiy separately signed a second bill requiring men given waivers from some military service on disability grounds to undergo another medical assessment.

A third bill he also signed aimed to create an online database of those eligible for military service. Both those bills could potentially help the military draft more fighters.

A string of strict measures set out in an earlier draft of that bill were gutted following a public outcry.

Zelenskiy has warned that Russia may plan another offensive later this spring or in summer, and Kyiv's troops have been scaling up their efforts to build up strong defensive fortifications along a sprawling front line.

With the initial shock of the invasion long gone, Ukraine has faced a significant reduction in the flow of volunteer fighters and numerous cases of draft evasion have been reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law that will lower the country’s minimum conscription age from 27 to 25, potentially boosting the number of men available to fight Russia’s invasion.

The Ukrainian Parliament passed the measure in May 2023 but Zelensky had not signed it into law until Tuesday.

It is unclear how many men will be impacted by the move.

A statement published by the Parliament upon passing the law in 2023 said it was “inappropriate” that “a significant number of citizens” who were fit for military service could not be called up, despite the present need, under martial law.

Calling men up to fight under Ukraine’s martial law, which is currently in effect, is a two-stage process. Firstly, men are drafted into military service. Then, once serving in the military, they can later be mobilized – or called up to fight – by the government.

The law signed by Zelensky on Tuesday lowers the age they can be drafted to 25, but leaves the mobilization age at 27, However, the Ukrainian Parliament is also considering a bill that would reduce the mobilization age to 25.

Martial law also prohibits most men between the ages 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine, unless they are deemed unfit for military service for health reasons or have an exemption.

The move comes as Ukraine has struggled to free up more manpower for its military as the Russian invasion continues into a third year.

Earlier this week, the United Kingdom’s defense intelligence agency released a report that noted Russia had significantly more personnel and munitions on the eastern front than Ukraine and was able to replenish its forces by 30,000 troops a month.

Controversial issue

Expanding the draft age has been a controversial issue in Ukraine. At the beginning of 2024, the former Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s army Valerii Zaluzhnyi argued that the army needed another 500,000 soldiers.

He expressed his frustration at “the inability of state institutions in Ukraine to improve the manpower levels of our armed forces without the use of unpopular measures,” in a CNN op-ed published in February.

Disagreement regarding the draft age is believed to be one of the reasons why Zelensky fired Zaluzhnyi in February of 2024.

But Zelensky previously said he would agree to a law to mobilize younger Ukrainian men, if it was “really” needed.

“If there are enough arguments to mobilize 25-year-olds and this is really something we need to do – I will agree with it,” Zelensky told reporters in a December press conference, where he also ruled out mobilization of women.

Statistics: Posted by Vympel — 2024-04-03 06:16pm