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Glovo's courier works under difficult circumstances in Odesa, Ukraine on January 31, 2023. (Photo by Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Conscription exemptions for employees of Glovo, Favbet Tech, Visa, and other technology companies will be canceled following public outcry, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on May 16.
Last month, Ukraine's government decided to exempt from conscription employees at Favbet, Glovo, and the American-owned payment corporation Visa for six months.
Glovo is a popular food delivery app in Ukraine, while Favbet is an online gambling site. Other companies included in the postponement included an advertising agency, a software development company called Agri Chain, and Kort, a company that develops and repairs electronic warfare equipment.
The decision to exempt employees at these companies sparked a public backlash. Members of parliament condemned the decision, emphasizing that only one of the companies included in the exemption is associated with Ukraine's military. Oleksandr Fedienko, a deputy in President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party, demanded that the Ministry change the criteria for postponement from mobilization.
"In view of the public outcry, I am canceling the exemption, and we will figure out the situation and analyze the decision regarding each company separately," Svyrydenko said.
Ukraine has been working on trying to ramp up mobilization over the last six months as the country's military faces an increasingly critical personnel shortage.
In April, the parliament passed a bill updating the rules on mobilization as the country seeks to replenish the ranks of its Armed Forces.
Rachel Amran is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked on the Europe and Central Asia team of Human Rights Watch investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Rachel holds a master's degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Regional Studies from Columbia University.
Rachel Amran
