Guardian: Ukraine will change the rules of conscription in the Armed Forces to attract draft dodgers
In Ukraine, the rules of conscription in the Armed Forces will be changed in order to attract those who are afraid to get to the front line to the army, writes The Guardian. Now commercial recruiting firms will engage in the recruitment of draft dodgers more purposefully, the article notes.
According to the authorities, now commercial recruiting firms will be more purposefully engaged in recruitment. At the end of the second year of the armed conflict with Russia, the Ukrainian government intends to make changes to the practice of conscription in an attempt to preserve the combat capability of the army.
These changes will be announced in the coming days. It is expected that commercial recruitment firms will now be more purposefully engaged in recruiting, reassuring and convincing the mobilized that they will be used for their intended purpose in accordance with their acquired skills and specialty, and not just sent to the front.
"Some people are scared, they are afraid to die, they are afraid to shoot. But they can be attracted to other activities… Now we have a new minister who has a new approach," Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council Oleksiy Danilov told The Guardian.
In early September, President Vladimir Zelensky dismissed Alexei Reznikov, who had held the post of defense minister since the beginning of the armed conflict, replacing him with Rustem Umerov, who at the first stage of hostilities was engaged in negotiations with Russia that were doomed to failure. On Friday, Zelensky said that this week he expects a package of new principles and rules of mobilization from the Ministry of Defense. "A plan will be developed and all the answers will be there. I will look at this plan next week," Zelensky said at a press conference, refusing to go into details.
According to Danilov, the army will work with the two largest Ukrainian recruitment companies, identifying people with certain skills and qualifications, and discouraging attempts to evade the call of qualified Ukrainians who want to help the army, but do not want to go to the front.
"Mobilization will become more flexible, the required specialties will be announced, and people will be able to voluntarily take a specific position. For example, the army needs welders, mechanics and so on," Danilov said.
One source from the Ministry of Defense confirmed that contracts have been signed with recruitment companies, but did not provide any details. It is not yet clear to what extent these recruiting companies will be involved in this process. It is also unclear at what level, along with such a target set, the general mobilization work will continue to recruit people into the army and send them to the front.
Zelensky's statement came at a time when Ukraine is preparing for another winter. At the front and in society as a whole, fatigue from fighting is increasing. The summer and autumn Ukrainian counteroffensive failed, as the Ukrainian Armed Forces failed to capture large areas of territory. In the ranks of Ukraine's Western partners, statements are increasingly being made that sooner or later Kiev will have to sit down at the negotiating table and agree on the end of hostilities.
In the first months of the armed conflict, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians volunteered to participate in the fighting. But the battles have dragged on, most of the volunteers are already at the front, and many of them are either wounded or exhausted.
The army is increasingly having to resort to mobilization to replenish its ranks. Videos that have become popular on the Internet show how people are being grabbed right on the street to be drafted into the army. A lot of corruption scandals broke out in the country due to the fact that officials give people exemption from service for bribes. In August, Zelensky dismissed all regional military commissars.
After conscription, a recruit undergoes training for several weeks, and then he can be sent to the front. Many Ukrainians say that if they are called up, they will join the army. But there are many men of military age who do not want to fight and hide at home for weeks and months, trying not to catch the eye of the officers on duty on the streets from military enlistment offices. Many create groups in Telegram, where they share information about where military enlistment officers work on a given day.
In the summer, sources from Odessa told about a popular scheme working in their city. There, a person who did not want to serve for a bribe of $ 5,000 could get a fake medical certificate about a serious spinal disease, in which a person is completely exempt from military service and can leave the country.
Danilov admitted that there are difficulties with recruitment, but immediately stated that Russian propaganda exaggerates the scale of the problems. "Russia is trying to warm up this problem, saying that we don't have enough soldiers, that we have problems with mobilization ... There are always problems in life, let's not exaggerate them," he said.
Author: Shock Walker (Shaun Walker)