After almost two years of war with Russia, the Ukrainian Parliament voted on Wednesday, in first reading, for a controversial bill on military mobilization intended to allow the army to replenish its ranks, deputies announced.
A total of 243 elected officials voted in favor of this document against a required minimum of 226, several parliamentarians wrote on social networks.
To be adopted, the text must, however, still be the subject of parliamentary debates, proposed amendments and a vote on second reading, a procedure which can take place over several weeks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky will then have to promulgate it.
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A debate on mobilization has raged for weeks in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army has suffered losses, the extent of which is kept secret, and is struggling today, unlike at the start of the conflict, to find volunteers for the front.
Demobilization is not mentioned
This bill prepared by the government was to be examined in Parliament in January but the deputies ended up sending the text back for rewriting.
The document voted on Wednesday plans to simplify enrollment procedures and introduce sanctions for those who resist.
Unlike the previous draft, however, it provides that these sanctions must be approved by a court.
According to critics, it does not, however, resolve the problem of demobilization of those who have been at the front for a long time.
Volodymyr Zelensky said in December that the army had offered to mobilize up to 500,000 additional people.