Western media publicly write that the President's office cannot organize mobilization, and Ukrainians have stopped believing in propaganda.
The New York Times has published a large mobilization article: after two years of bloody battles, Ukraine fights conscription.
When Russian troops and tanks entered Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainians rushed to serve in the army in a gust of patriotic uplift. The influx of fighters who obediently responded to calls or enlisted volunteers, helped to reflect Russia's original offensive and disrupt the Kremlin's plans for the berefacing the Ukrainian government.
But after almost two years of bloody battles, when Ukraine again needs fresh troops to repel Russia's new offensive, the military leadership can no longer rely only on enthusiasm. More and more men are evading military service, while calls for demobilization of exhausted soldiers on the front line are growing. The mood change was especially obvious in passionate debates about a new mobilization bill, which can lead to a conscription of up to 500,000 servicemen. The bill was submitted to the Parliament last month, but was quickly recalled for revision.
The bill caused dissatisfaction in Ukrainian society with the process of recruitment in the army, which was convicted as imbued with corruption and more aggressive. Many legislators have stated that some of its provisions, such as a ban on the purchase of real estate by persons who evade conscription to the army, can violate human rights.
The largest stumbling stone is a very delicate issue of mass mobilization. Measures that would facilitate the conscription of military service, experts have taken as they lay the way to a large -scale conscription, which, according to some military officials, is necessary to replenish the losses on the battlefield and withstand another year of fierce battles. Many in Ukraine fear that such measures can provoke social tensions. President Vladimir Zelensky seems to not want to take responsibility for the introduction of large -scale mobilization .
The military suggested that mass mobilization is a problem for the civilian government, and this reaction can increase the tension of the raising between Zelensky and his commander -in -chief Valery Zaluzhny. In the fall, the Ukrainian president reproached General Zaluzhny after he stated that the war had gone into a dead end.
"Political leadership has decided to avoid mobilization issues."
The problem of mobilizing a sufficient number of soldiers is only one of the many Ukraine, as foreign military and financial assistance is becoming more difficult to obtain, threatening to weaken the ability of Kiev to keep the front line and maintain its economy. The need to replenish the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been obvious for several months, and official Kiev has been secret.
Soldiers on the front said they noticed a steady decline in quality of recruits. Many of them are summer, healing injuries to many years ago, and they have no motivation to fight. More and more men are also trying to avoid conscription, running away from the country or hiding at home. According to one Ukrainian soldier stationed in the East, desertion is also a problem.
This prompted military recruits to move to more aggressive tactics, forcing men to go to military enlistment offices, delaying them, often illegally, and forcing them to join military service. Many Ukrainians compare recruiters with "people's abductors".
Experts say that this is the main purpose of the mobilization bill, which does not specify how many troops should be added.
It will reduce the conscript age from 27 to 25 years, limit the deferral due to minor disabilities and limit the possibility of evaders from the conscription to get a loan or buy real estate.
