“The biggest problem is the lack of people.” These words, heard by journalists, including myself, from Ukrainian soldiers and commanders across the front line for the past year, are no outlier. For most of 2024 and into 2025, Ukraine’s biggest issue on the battlefield has not been firepower but
The contract includes basic general military training, vocational training, and an adaptation course in an army unit. Volunteers will receive a one-time monetary aid payment of Hr 1 million ($24,000) and a monthly allowance of up to Hr 120,000 ($3,000).
The Ukrainian military's "special contracts" for recruited volunteers aged 18 to 24, who are exempt from mobilization, will reportedly include a number of benefits, including a Hr 1 million ($24,000) annual salary, 0% interest mortgage rates, as well free higher education, Ukrinform reported on Feb. 10.
The Poltava Oblast National Police detained a man who allegedly shot a draft officer, stole his weapon, and escaped with another man overnight on Jan. 31.
Under the new legislation, draft board decisions for individuals deemed fit for service will remain valid for one year. This allows military commissions to send individuals to the army in subsequent drafts without requiring additional medical examinations or decisions.
The move comes amid pressure from U.S. lawmakers to lower the draft age, though President Volodymyr Zelensky has opposed lowering it to 18, arguing it would harm Ukraine's future prospects.
Ukrainian society largely does not want to mobilize. Nearly 6 million Ukrainian men have not updated their information in military enlistment centers, and most of them likely don't have grounds for a deferment or exemption. Forced mobilization of these men is categorically opposed by society. Rosy-cheeked aunts gather and shout
"The priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia's military potential, not Ukraine's draft age. The goal should be to preserve as many lives as possible, not to preserve weapons in storage."
Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliamentary defense committee, stated on Nov. 2 that in his view it is necessary to mobilize 500,000 citizens, given current battlefield conditions.
Some 160,000 people are planned to be drafted into Ukrainian forces, which will raise the manning of units to 85%, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko said on Oct. 29.
The returned prisoners also reportedly included some mobilized Russian fighters and contract soldiers, including kadyrovtsy, the notoriously ruthless troops named for Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
Video footage taken at the scene shows officers stationed outside the doors to the venue, intercepting male attendees as they exited the concert. Officers are shown forcibly arresting some men.
Several months ago, most of these infantrymen were serving their sentences behind bars. Now, they are part of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion, known as "Da Vinci."
Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on Oct. 7 that residents in the region will be paid a nationwide record 3 million rubles (about $31,200) through a one-time signing bonus for joining the military.
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, men aged 18 to 30 living in occupied Kherson Oblast will be subject to conscription into the Russian military for a period of 12 months.
Amid speculation that the Kremlin is considering a new mobilization of conscripts, some potential draftees say they are not enthusiastic about defending Russian territory just over a month after the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast. "I won't go (to the front). I swore an oath to the Constitution, not to
"No one will die who is not destined to die. But if you die defending your homeland, your faith in God, you will go to heaven," said Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat Regiment fighting for Russia. Alaudinov himself isn't fighting on the front.
From May 18 to July 16, 4,690,496 military-aged men updated their registration data by the July 17 deadline, the country's Defense Ministry has announced.
Ukrainians liable for military service who fail to update their data by July 17 may be fined up to Hr 25,000 (nearly $600) or put on the wanted list. The deadline for updating data expires on July 17, 2024.
Ukrainian conscripts and reservists living abroad for more than three months can now register for military service at foreign consulates, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced on June 7.
About 1.6 million Ukrainians have updated their information in line with new mobilization norms effective May 18, with over 1.4 million using the "Reserve+" application, Deputy Minister of Defense Kateryna Chernohorenko reported on June 5.
Around 1.5 million military-aged men have successfully updated their military documents in compliance with a new mobilization law passed in late-May, the Defense Ministry reported on June 2.
Nearly 350 prisoners have been released from detention to serve in the military after a new conscription law took effect, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska told the New York Times in an interview on May 24.
The person's health "rapidly deteriorated" on May 23, upon which he was given first aid and medics were summoned, who could only declare him dead upon their arrival, the statement read.
According to the newly implemented law, all military-aged men, with some exceptions, must update their military documents within 60 days from May 18 at public service centers and enlistment offices, or via the online application Rezerv+.
The algorithm of consular services provision was updated to align with the new mobilization law's requirements, the Foreign Ministry said.
Last month, Ukraine's government decided to exempt from conscription employees at Favbet, Glovo, and the American-owned payment corporation Visa for six months.
The Estonian Interior Ministry does not plan to conduct forced repatriation of Ukrainian refugees staying in Estonia, Anneli Viks, the ministry's advisor on citizenship and migration policy, said on April 30 in an interview with Estonian media outlet ERR.
Returning men of draft age to Ukraine is "ethically ambiguous" and Ukraine will thus have to "take the in initiative" in the process, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with Polish channel TVN24 on April 27.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Dan Cisek said it is a "difficult question" but that the "government of Ukraine has the right to define its policy" on this issue.
Poland will help Ukraine bring its military-aged men back following new changes to passport and consular service laws for Ukrainian men living abroad, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on April 24.
The parliament's National Security and Defense Committee finished reviewing all the amendments to a mobilization bill and removed provisions on demobilization and rotation of military personnel, lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said on April 9.
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