A controversial law seeks to increase recruitment that is insufficient due to the fear and fatigue of the population after two years of war. Nearly half a million men and women volunteered to defend the country in the first year of the Russian invasion, in 2022.

A survey last February by the demographic research company Info Sapiens estimated that 35% of men of draft age – from 25 to 60 years old – are willing to join the ranks. The most visible figure regarding the refusal to go to war is precisely the number of men who have left the country since 2022: if at that time they represented 14% of those registered as refugees in the EU, now they are 34%, according to the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). 20% are adults of fighting age, that is, 850,000 men, 48% more than in December 2022, according to Eurostat. The government wants to eliminate this possibility by introducing an electronic identification system with the new law, not only by physical address or identifying civilians on the street: calls can now be made by email or mobile phone.