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The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, during a session on Oct. 19, 2023. (Iryna Herashchenko/Telegram)
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, during a session on Oct. 19, 2023. (Iryna Herashchenko/Telegram)
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The parliament's National Security and Defense Committee reviewed all the 4,269 parliamentary amendments to a mobilization bill, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on March 29.

The lawmaker estimated that the bill would be considered in the plenary hall in two weeks, adding that he does not expect any delays.

Ukraine's government hopes to update the legal framework around conscription in order to ramp up mobilization in 2024. The parliament is now considering a new draft of the mobilization law after its initial, contentious version was withdrawn.

The parliament supported the updated bill in the first reading on Feb. 7.

Zhelezniak stressed that the Defense Committee's conclusions do not mean that the bill is "100% ready" for a vote in the second reading, as additional committee amendments must be considered, and a final comparative table must be drafted.

The Defense Ministry presented key points of the revised mobilization bill on March 27. The proposal includes mobilization from the age of 25 to 60 and an introduction of basic military training instead of conscript service.

President Volodymyr Zelensky initially said that the bill calls for a mobilization of 450,000-500,000 additional conscripts, but Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said earlier on March 29 that this number has been "significantly reduced."

Opinion: Ukraine may have no choice but to lower its fighting age
Editor’s Note: Brian Bonner, the Kyiv Post’s chief editor from 2008-2021, is the host of Hromadske Radio’s podcast “Ukraine Calling.” This weekly English-language program, released on Fridays, can be found on Hromadske’s YouTube channel and website, as well as on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,…

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