Parliament starts considering updated mobilization bill in 2nd reading
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has begun considering of an updated mobilization bill in its second reading, lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said on April 10.
The bill is a key component of the government's efforts to update the legal framework around conscription in order to ramp up mobilization in 2024.
The parliament is considering an updated version of the bill after the first contentious proposal was withdrawn. The re-submitted draft law passed the first reading on Feb. 7. Lawmakers have proposed over 4,000 amendments to the bill since then.
The bill comes into force after it passes the second reading and is signed by the president.
Honcharenko said that the parliament's National Security and Defense Committee finished reviewing all the amendments on April 9 after removing provisions on demobilization and rotation of military personnel. The latter two points are to be developed separately from the main bill.
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 said back in December 2023 that the original version of the mobilization bill called for a draft of 450,000-500,000 additional conscripts. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on March 29 that this number has been "significantly reduced."
Brian Bonner
