The Ukrainian parliament has passed a controversial bill on the mobilization of the armed forces. “The draft law on mobilization was adopted as a whole,” MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said yesterday via the Telegram online service. 283 of the 450 MPs voted in favor, he added. Among other things, the law increases the penalties for conscientious objectors.
However, a passage that provided for the discharge of soldiers from the army who had served 36 months was deleted. The cancellation caused discontent among many soldiers who have been fighting on the front for more than two years and their families.
The change in the law is intended to enable the government in Kiev to call up more soldiers, since there is no end to the war in sight and the army is increasingly on the defensive on the front in the east due to a lack of weapons and ammunition, but also of Russian personnel was pushed.
MP Olexander Fedienko said the passage of the mobilization law was a “message to our partners that we are ready to take back our territory and that we need weapons.”
