Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on Tuesday to lower the age of military mobilization from 27 to 25, as the armed forces lack the men to face the Russian invasion. This bill, which was voted on a year ago by deputies and which was until then awaiting promulgation at the presidency, comes into force from Wednesday, indicated the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, on its website. The Ukrainian government must then bring the various regulatory texts into compliance with the new age of mobilization within six months.
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Debate
Enlistment in the army has been debated for months 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. The Rada voted at first reading in February for a series of measures intended to facilitate mobilization, after a first draft prepared by the government was sent back for rewriting a few weeks earlier.
Volodymyr Zelensky said in December 2023 that the army had offered to mobilize up to 500,000 additional people, a number since revised downward by the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky. The current enlistment system is considered by many Ukrainians to be unfair, inefficient and often corrupt. And voices are also being raised to demand a demobilization of those who have been at the front for a long time.