Expected at first reading before the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, on Thursday January 11, the bill aimed at mobilizing new soldiers within the army was finally sent back to the Ukrainian government. The decision was announced early in the afternoon following a closed-door meeting with the military command and the heads of the different political groups making up Parliament.
“We understand the request of the military command and are ready to respond to it, assured David Arakhamia, the leader of the parliamentary group of the presidential party, Servant of the People, on Telegram. But not all rules can be accepted. Some provisions directly violate human rights, others are not optimally worded. »
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced later in the day that his team had “already prepared a new version of the bill, taking into account all the proposals” of modifications, without specifying when this text will be presented again to Parliament.
Concern of the population
The reform of the rules surrounding mobilization has been the subject of controversy and concern among the Ukrainian population for several weeks. As the country prepares to enter a third year of war, the country’s authorities face the need to replenish the ranks of a weakened army. According to official American sources cited by the New York Times, in August, 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers would have been killed and 120,000 injured since February 24, 2022. Added to this is the need to relieve exhausted soldiers after two years of war.
If soldiers reported a cruel lack of new recruits since the summer of 2023, the urgency to mobilize was illustrated by a figure during a recent press conference by the Ukrainian president. On December 19, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the army had asked him to mobilize between 450,000 and 500,000 new soldiers.
In response, on December 25, the government presented the bill in order to mobilize new men. Among the key measures: the increase in the age of conscription from 27 to 25 years, the simplification of enlistment procedures, a strengthening of sanctions for those who resist. The text also aimed to limit service in times of war to thirty-six months, whereas it is currently unlimited.
Difficult discussions
But the controversies surrounding this text have accumulated and concentrated on certain critical points, in particular the sending of military summons electronically, the expansion of the powers of representatives of recruitment centers and heads of local administrations, the lowering of requirements physical, or even the possibility of voluntary mobilization for those sentenced to a suspended sentence. Even before the law was presented to Parliament, the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, had declared that certain points of the bill violated the fundamental rights of Ukrainians and contradicted the country’s Constitution.
You have 25% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.