Volodymyr Zelensky at a forum in Kyiv in February 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law passed by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada almost a year ago that reduces the age at which Ukrainian men can be conscripted into the army, the country’s parliament announced on Tuesday.
As well as lowering the minimum age requirement for conscription from 27 to 25, thus allowing the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to draft far more men into service, the law provides for more severe punishment and bigger fines for draft dodgers.
The previous version of the law on military duty, which will now be amended, stipulated that during martial law, men aged 18 to 27 who had not completed compulsory military service could not be drafted into the army.
The law also cancels the partial exemption status that until now has allowed men with a number of minor disabilities and health conditions to be exempted from certain types of military service. With immediate effect, the only two statuses recognised by the AFU are “exempt” and “eligible,” and anyone previously given a “partially exempt” status will be required to undergo a fresh medical examination.
Ukraine’s unicameral legislature originally passed the bill in May, but Zelensky opted not to sign it into law straight away. His decision to do so now follows a frustrating winter for the Ukrainian leadership, as it struggles to maintain its war effort amid failure and delays on the part of the West to provide it with vital weaponry and ammunition.
“Lowering the mobilization age from 27 to 25 years of age will support the Ukrainian military’s ability to restore and reconstitute existing units and to create new units,” the US-based Institute for the Study of War said on Wednesday, though it added that “Western-provided materiel continues to be the greatest deciding factor for the Ukrainian military’s ability to restore and augment its combat power.”
