2024-05-04 09:59:47
Ukraine is running out of men who can defend the country against the Russian army. The government is thus intensifying the pressure on citizens of working age, i.e. from 18 to 60 years of age, who have decided to settle abroad. From mid-May, they will only be able to obtain a passport on the territory of Ukraine, and Kyiv has also temporarily suspended consular services abroad.
Ukraine is running out of men who can defend the country against the Russian army. The government thus increases the pressure on citizens of working age who live abroad. | Video: Radio Free Europe
The number of volunteers compared to those who signed up for the Ukrainian army at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022 has decreased significantly. The Ukrainian government has previously admitted that the recruitment campaign to fight in the trenches was not very convincing. Hundreds of thousands of people avoid taxes, a large part of them abroad.
The government’s decision from the middle of last week is one of the steps that will lead to a gradual tightening of the mobilization rules. After the suspension of Ukrainian consular services, which provide assistance to citizens during their stay abroad, Ukrainians are awaiting the arrival of a new mobilization law.
It will come into effect on May 18, and its main goal will be to identify as many men as possible who are subject to conscription. This is to make it easier for the authorities to draft them into the army, which is crucial for the occupied country at a time when it is running low on fighting forces.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented on the changes last Tuesday. “Living across the border does not absolve a citizen of his responsibilities towards his homeland. It is unacceptable for some to sit in restaurants while others are in the trenches. And moreover very tired,” he responded to men who avoid joining the army by, for example, traveling out of the country.
The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 6.4 million Ukrainians have fled their country, many of whom have gone to European Union countries. According to the EU statistical agency, 20.6 percent of the estimated 4.3 million Ukrainians currently living on its territory are men. According to Radio Free Europe, Ukraine plans to check whether they have a legitimate reason to stay abroad.
Protecting the rights and interests of Ukrainian citizens abroad has always been and remains a priority for the MFA. At the same time, under the circumstances of Russia’s full-scale aggression, the main priority is to protect our Homeland from destruction.
How it looks like now:…
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 23, 2024
“If we were to go to the embassy with anything for help now, they would send us to the recruitment centers in Ukraine. I will not return. Then they will not let me back to the Czech Republic. I have an official permanent residence here. I pay taxes properly here. But now I have a problem,” he says to reporters, a Ukrainian who lives in Prague.
Have a good reason to leave
However, according to CNN, the ban on issuing passports in other countries has drawn criticism from some members of the Ukrainian parliament, who called it “semi-legal”. Some of them are convinced that representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be summoned to give an explanation.
Ukrainian authorities want to focus only on citizens who left the country illegally. “I have a bad feeling about it. I have a family, a wife and children. And now I will have to go to Ukraine to prove my identity. That’s just the way it is. Or the documents will be issued at the military registration and conscription office – I don’t know. I don’t know anything yet ,” states Vladislav, who lives with his family in Warsaw.
Kiev banned men of military age from leaving the country at the start of a full-scale invasion. Many Ukrainians started living abroad long before that. According to journalists from Radio Free Europe, the new mobilization law may still affect their lives. “Some of these people left Ukraine already in the 1990s or 2000, so we should only talk about those who violated Ukrainian laws, that is, those who somehow crossed the border illegally, without permission to leave,” he says to the Polish political scientist Lukasz Adamski.
There is no way to get men from abroad
According to Adamski, it is in Warsaw’s interest that Ukrainian refugees remain in the country. According to the expert, the labor market there requires it, yet he admits that the safety of citizens should be more important to the state. “We must understand that it is important for Ukrainian men to return to defend their country. We all know that if Ukraine, God forbid, does not win this war, the risk of a war in Poland will increase significantly,” he warns.
It is not yet clear how Ukraine will force men who have left the country illegally to return. “They cannot be repatriated by force. Only the country in which they stay can expel them by force,” explains Igor Fris, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Video: Russian was filming his own howitzer, it suddenly exploded (article with video here)
Ukrainians attack Russian positions at Bakhmut | Video: Reuters