There are often penalties
Ukraine tightens draft rules for men
April 11, 2024, 1:50 p.m
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Ukraine lacks soldiers. President Zelensky wants to conscript hundreds of thousands. A new law is being introduced for this purpose. This initially received a lot of criticism, but according to media reports it has now been passed. It is defused, but can still have harsh consequences.
After a good three months of discussion, a controversial law on mobilization was passed in Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. 283 MPs voted for the amendment out of 226 votes required, Ukrainian media reported. The right for soldiers to quit their service after three years is not included in the final text. It was said in advance that a separate law would be passed for this purpose.
Mainly, the amendment tightens the rules for registering those fit for military service. When it comes into force, all men of military age between 18 and 60 are obliged to carry their military passport with them during the current period of martial law. The men also have to update their personal data within two months, otherwise they face penalties. In the future, new Ukrainian travel documents abroad will only be issued with existing military documents. However, these are only available when returning to Ukraine. In addition to fines for ignoring call-ups and muster notices, there will also be a risk of driving licenses being revoked in the future, with a few exceptions. Planned account suspensions in this case were discarded.
In the Russian invasion that has been going on for over two years, the Ukrainian armed forces are having increasing problems making up for their losses with new soldiers. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recently enacted a law that lowers the age for reservists from 27 to 25 years. This means that men between the ages of 25 and 60 can be drafted into military service. Women can volunteer for military service in Ukraine.
The army, national guard and border guard together have well over a million women and men under arms. The remaining mobilization potential was estimated by the Ukrainian portal texty.org.ua at around five million. Despite the ban on conscripts leaving the country since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of people have fled abroad across the green border with forged documents. In the country itself, more than 70,000 people are wanted in the Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions alone. Since the beginning of the war, the public prosecutor’s office has initiated more than 46,000 cases of desertion and unauthorized removal from the troops, with a rapidly increasing trend. More than a quarter of this will occur in the first quarter of 2024.