Ukraine passes controversial law to increase much-needed military personnel

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament on Thursday passed a controversial law that would regulate how the country recruits new soldiers to supplement soldiers fighting against Russian forces.

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Two years after a full-scale Russian occupation took over a quarter of the country, the stakes for Kiev could not be higher. After a series of victories in the first year of the war, the dug-in, underarmed and outnumbered Ukrainian army was lucky. The military is worried about the lack of soldiers and ammunition, as well as the delivery of aid from Western countries.

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Lawmakers have been dragging their feet over the new law for months, and it is expected to be unpopular. It comes about a week after Ukraine lowered the conscription age for men from 27 to 25.

The law will come into effect a month after it is signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, but it is unclear when that will happen. It took several months to sign the law lowering the conscription age.

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The move came Thursday amid an escalation of a Russian campaign that has crippled Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks. According to the authorities, overnight attacks by Russian missiles and drones have struck again at infrastructure and energy facilities in several regions and completely destroyed the Trypilskaya thermal power plant, the largest power producer in the Kyiv region.

The law was adopted in response to a request by Ukraine's military to mobilize an additional 500,000 troops as Russia has taken more of the initiative, Zelensky said in December. The current head of the army, Alexander Syrskyi and Zelenskyi, reduced this figure because soldiers could be rotated from the rear. But officials did not say how much is needed.

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Watered down from its original form, the law made it easier to identify every eligible male in the country, as many men avoided conscription during the war by not contacting the authorities.

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But it's unclear whether Ukraine, which continues to run out of ammunition, can afford to arm many new troops without fresh Western aid.

Earlier this month, Vladimir Fesenko, an expert at the Penta Center for Applied Policy Studies, said that the law, while painful for Ukrainian society, is crucial for Ukraine's continued struggle against Russia.

“The majority of the population does not want their loved ones to go to the front, but at the same time they want Ukraine to win,” he said.

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Thursday's vote came after the parliament's defense committee removed a key provision from the bill to rotate troops involved in the 36-month war, a key promise by Ukraine's leadership. Deputy Alexei Goncharenko said in a Telegram post that he was surprised by the attempt to remove this provision.

The committee instructed the Ministry of Defense to develop a separate draft law on demobilization within a few months, said Dmitry Lazutkin, the press secretary of the ministry.

Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, there is no rest rotation for tired soldiers on the front lines. But considering the scale and intensity of the war against Russia, it would be difficult to come up with a rest system.

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Ukraine already suffers from a shortage of combat-ready trained militiamen, and the demobilization of front-line soldiers now deprives Ukrainian forces of their most capable fighters.

At least 10 strikes in overnight rocket and drone attacks damaged energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region were without electricity and that Russia was “trying to destroy Kharkiv's infrastructure and leave the city in darkness.”

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On Thursday, four people were killed and five were injured in the attack in the city of Mykolaiv, the governor of the region Vitaly Kim said. Four people were killed and 14 injured by Russian missile strikes in Odessa region on Wednesday evening, Governor Oleh Kiper said.

Energy facilities were also damaged in Zaporozhye and Lviv regions.

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