KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Divisive mobilization law in Ukraine as Kiev struggles to build up troops after Russia launches new offensive that threatens to hit Ukraine's second-largest city took effect on Saturday.
The bill has been watered down from its original draft to make it easier to identify all conscripts in the country. It also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses and funds to buy homes and cars. Some analysts say Ukraine cannot afford to.
Lawmakers dragged their feet for months and finally passed the bill in mid-April. One week since Ukraine lowered the age for men who can be drafted into the military from 27 to 25. The move reflects the growing strain that more than two years of war with Russia has placed on Ukraine's military, which is trying to protect the front lines of the battle, and has depleted Ukraine's reserves of troops and weapons and ammunition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also signed two other laws on Friday that allow prisoners of war to join the military and increase fines for draft evaders by five times. Russia conscripted prisoners of war early in the war, and manpower shortages forced Ukraine to adopt new controversial measures.
legal concerns
Oleksi, a 68-year-old owner of a car repair shop in Kyiv, fears he will have to close his business as he expects 70% of his workforce to be mobilized. He asked that only his name be used so that he could speak freely.
“With the new law, people will be mobilized, we will be shut down and we will have to stop paying taxes,” Oleksiy told The Associated Press on Saturday. He said it is very difficult to fill employees due to their specialized skills. Most of them are already in the military, he said, adding that the law is “unfair” and “unclear.”
Essential municipal services will also be affected. Viktor Kaminsky, the head of Kiev's city services department, which provides households with heating and repair equipment for public buildings, said that even if the law allows him to keep half the staff he deems qualified, Even if there were, he said, it would be difficult to replace the mobilized staff and meet demand. service.
He said 60 of the 220 people who work in Kaminsky's department are eligible to be called up. “If we hire 30 people from our workforce, the problem is we don't have anyone to replace them,” he said.
“There are pros and cons to this law,” Kaminsky said. “It's harder to avoid the mobilization process now than it was before when people were trying to avoid it.” But he said it would be better if essential workers like him were given more exemptions. To tell.
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Tarasenko, deputy commander of the Ukrainian assault battalion, told The Associated Press that his subordinates felt “terrible” that the law did not address the issue of demobilization. Many Ukrainian troops have been fighting since the beginning of the war, but it remains unclear when and how they will be relieved of duty.
“This feels like a cruel injustice to those who have been fighting for two years, and of course has a very negative impact on the psychological state of the soldiers and their families,” Tarasenko said.
An earlier draft of the bill envisaged demobilizing the military after 36 months and rotating soldiers who served on the front lines for more than six months. These provisions were removed following a last-minute appeal from Ukraine's military leadership, which feared the military would lose its best-trained and most experienced troops. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense is developing another demobilization law.
Tarasenko said that even though his comrades were exhausted, they understood the general's point.
“We are already seeing shortages in our forces, especially in specialized units. And it would be a mistake to simply allow these professionals who have been through so much to demobilize,” he said. said.
Ukrainian military under stress
Ukraine has been struggling to replace its depleted forces for months as Russian forces open new fronts in the northeast with a ground offensive, putting further pressure on Kiev's strained forces. After weeks of investigation, the Russian government realized that Ukraine was suffering from manpower shortages and its forces were thinly spread in northeast Kharkiv and launched a new offensive.
Moscow's military has bombed Kharkiv in recent weeks, damaging civilian and energy infrastructure, prompting angry accusations from Mr. Zelenskiy that the Russian leadership had sought to reduce the city to rubble. Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced that five people were injured in a Russian airstrike that hit a residential area on Saturday. On Friday, Spokesman Terekhov reported that at least three Kharkov residents were killed and 28 others injured by Russian guided bombs.
Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians, but thousands of people have been killed or injured in more than 27 months of fighting.
Kharkov region governor Ihor Sinyevov said on Saturday that nearly 10,000 civilians would need to be evacuated from frontline areas near the Russian border. Only 100 residents remain in Vovchansk, a border town in the heart of Moscow's fierce push, which is now largely in ruins. The prewar population of this town was over 17,400.
The United States last week announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine, with President Joe Biden pledging to rush desperately needed weapons to the country to thwart Russian advances. Still, Ukrainian military commanders said only small amounts of U.S. military aid had begun reaching the front lines, and it would be at least two months before Kyiv's needs for supplies to sustain the front lines would be met. .
volunteers and fugitives
Rushin is the head of recruitment for the 3rd Assault Brigade, the most popular force among Ukrainian volunteers. He told The Associated Press that the number of men joining brigades fighting in eastern Ukraine has increased by 15% in the past few months. Most of the new employees are between 23 and 25 years old. Rushin and his recruits, who spoke at a training session in Kiev, asked to be identified only by their call sign, citing safety concerns.
“There's no other option (besides mobilization),” said Rojas, a 26-year-old recruit. “I think most men end up in the military anyway, but you can also get some preferential treatment by joining as a volunteer.”
“It's not the hostages in this situation who are afraid of being mobilized. It's the people (soldiers) who are standing in formations of three instead of 10. They are the hostages in this situation. and should be replenished. So that's the question, 'Why are we here?'” Rojas said.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, many Ukrainians have fled the country to avoid military draft.
The Supreme Court announced last month that 930 people would be sentenced for evading mobilization in 2023, a fivefold increase from the previous year.
As of November last year, around 768,000 Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 64 were granted temporary protection in European Union countries, according to data from the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat.
Kiev has banned men under the age of 60 from leaving the country since the start of the war, but some are exempt, including people with disabilities and those with three or more dependents. Eurostat data also reveals how many protected men belong to these categories and how many reached the EU from Russian-occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine. Not yet.
Unable to legally cross the border, some Ukrainian men risk their lives by swimming across the river that separates Ukraine from neighboring Romania and Hungary.
Late Friday, Ukraine's border service announced that at least 30 people have died trying to cross the Tisza River since the full-scale invasion.
A few days ago, Romanian border guards recovered the nearly naked and disfigured body of a man who had apparently been floating in the Tisza River for several days, making him the 30th known victim. Ukrainian authorities announced this in an online statement. The man's identity is not yet known.
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Kozlovska reported from London. Associated Press writer Alex Babenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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