A law on the army plans to lower the recruitment age from 27 to 25 years

2024-01-08 16:15:53

In Ukraine, parliament is currently considering a law aimed at reforming the country’s recruitment system and establishing a mobilization program to attract half a million Ukrainians to the army in the coming months. The stakes are high as the Ukrainian army lacks soldiers on the front lines, struggles to replace battlefield casualties and also to allow soldiers who have been fighting for two years to return to their families.

First modification: 01/08/2024 – 15:15

2 min

By Stéphane Siohan, RFI correspondent in kyiv

Ukraine needs to mobilize between 450,000 and 500,000 soldiers by 2024. The Ukrainian army currently has 850,000 men.

However, according to fairly reliable estimates, 70,000 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the invasion, and 120,000 have been wounded. The other problem is that it is vital to organize rotations and create new brigades if you are to have any hope of defeating the Russian army.

The problem is that the people who were really motivated to fight did so in 2022: they are on the front lines, some of them dead. And now it is necessary to create a legislative framework that makes it possible to mobilize large numbers of people and increase recruitment, while maintaining a delicate balance, in a democratic society, between the force of the law and respect for individual freedoms.

A permanent debate about the future of the army

In short, the recruitment law being studied by Parliament plans to lower the minimum recruitment age from 27 to 25, reform recruitment centers, which are a bureaucratic hell, increase penalties for evaders, who would be deprived of driving license and the right to buy property, and there is also talk of a maximum period of service of 36 months, while currently it is unlimited. But it is not yet known which of these ideas Parliament will adopt.

However, several experts believe that incentives, such as a salary increase, or better consideration of the professional skills of recruits at their destination, are also needed to have more volunteer soldiers.

An unpopular bill, warns Zelensky

This bill is not being well received by public opinion for two reasons. First, President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to take responsibility for a potentially unpopular law, conveying the message that this mobilization was not political, but rather a request from the military.

In addition, prominent figures in the presidential majority have put forward other hypotheses: for example, an exemption from compulsory military service for people who pay high taxes, or who make a donation to the budget. Others have suggested lottery, as in the United States during the Vietnam War. These ideas have sparked great controversy, as many believe that it amounts to discriminating against the poor and that the only thing you have to do to escape the trenches is pay.