In December last year, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada (parliament) published a draft law proposing to lower the age at which people can be mobilized to fight from 27 to 25. According to the Associated Press on February 22, Ukraine is now actively considering this "unpopular" expanded conscription plan to increase the number of troops by about 400,000 due to the shortage of troops on the front line.
According to the report, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict lasts for two years, the Ukrainian army lacks enough recruits, and front-line soldiers cannot get enough rest between rotations. Vadim Ivchenko, a member of the Defense and Intelligence Council of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, said that each brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 people of the Ukrainian army can usually only use 75% of its strength, and some brigades can even use only 25% of their strength.
A Ukrainian army officer named Dmytro told The Associated Press that his troops were working overtime to build positions against the ongoing Russian shelling. He revealed that at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, his troops rotated every two weeks with a week off at a time, but now soldiers can only get four days off after a month of fighting.
According to the West, the average age of Ukrainian servicemen is in their 40s. But the front-line commander of the Ukrainian army said that the older a soldier is, the more likely he is to develop chronic diseases.
Dima, a Ukrainian soldier fighting near Avdeyevka, said his unit had recently recruited seven recruits between the ages of 55 and 58, "where can they raid?" If they were asked to walk 4 kilometers with a backpack full of ** equipment, they would fall down halfway through. ”
On February 20, local time, Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the Donetsk region Source: Visual China.
Ukrainian parliamentarians estimate that there are currently about 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the Russian-Ukrainian front. According to the report, in order to solve the problem of troop tension, the Ukrainian military hopes to mobilize up to 500,000 new soldiers. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada is considering pushing ahead with an expanded conscription program that seeks to lower the age at which people can be mobilized for combat from 27 to 25 in order to increase the number of troops by about 400,000.
Reuters said that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had passed the conscription bill in the first reading on February 7 local time. In addition to easing the age limit for conscription, the bill proposes tougher sanctions against Ukrainians evading military service, requires "potential military personnel" overseas to register for Selective Service, and plans to implement **conscription.
Ukrainian parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak expected at the time that the bill could pass its second reading at the end of February and could enter into force in April this year.
On February 8, local time, in Kyiv, Ukraine, recruits waited in the municipal hospital to pass the physical examination Source: Visual China.
But the Associated Press pointed out that this bill is extremely unpopular in Ukraine, and Ukrainians have to consider whether they can convince enough Ukrainians to participate in the fighting. A Ukrainian hiding on the outskirts of Kyiv told The Associated Press that he refused to go to war because he didn't want to kill. The Ukrainian resident, who declined to be named, said he was planning to raise money to flee Ukraine.
According to the report, many Ukrainians also use bribes to evade military service. Olga Yevchenko, the doctor in charge of the medical examination of the recruits, revealed that some people do try to bribe, "it is difficult to make a decision." If a young man comes and he is completely healthy, then you already know how it will end. ”
As the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its third year, the Ukrainian army is suffering setbacks. In the early morning of February 17 local time, Syrsky, the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced that the Ukrainian army had decided to withdraw from Avdeyevka, an important town in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Ministry of Defense later issued a statement saying that Russian forces had taken full control of Avdeyevka.
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