Ukraine’s armed forces are running desperately short on skilled manpower due to slow reforms and poor conditions.
The Ukrainian parliament decided to take the easy way out: force retired veterans to return to active duty when summoned, without mobilization or a declaration of war.
For that, lawmakers on March 30 passed a highly-controversial bill to introduce an extensive package of amendments to the military enlistment system and create a new category of military service — “individuals drafted from the reserve force.”
The law lets the president recall up to 200,000 reservists for no more than one tour of duty within 12 months at his discretion. The draft must be first requested by the general-in-chief of the armed forces (currently, Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak). Previously, the president had to declare a large-scale mobilization and parliament had to approve it.
The draft is compulsory, with few exceptions. Evaders can face up to five years in prison.
This will primarily affect former contracted military service members, who are automatically placed into the armed forces’ reserve forces after being honorably discharged. The bill guarantees that drafted reservists keep their civilian jobs and monthly salaries.
Authors of the legislation, which was initiated by President Volodymyr Zelensky, said they wanted to make “a more responsive mechanism to ensure combat efficacy compared to mobilization.”
But veterans denounced the law as draconian and unfair.
They said it won’t help Ukraine maintain a strong military and will actually discourage new people from enlisting and encourage discrimination against veterans.
“It appears that those who have fulfilled their warrior duty to Ukraine will stay in debt indefinitely,” influential veteran group Ukrainian Military Center said in a statement. “And those who never served will stay in civilian life until the top priority and standard reserves are exhausted.”
Veterans’ rights group Legal Hundred denounced the bill too, saying it doesn’t provide the country with a more effective rapid engagement tool. Instead, it just lets command forcibly draft former enlisted soldiers and officers over and over.
The group also expects the hunt for retirees to jumpstart a new surge of corruption in military recruitment offices as many people would prefer to buy themselves off.
The veteran community Ukrainian Military Center likened the law to “serfdom” and called it an act of “stunning social injustice.”
“In everyday life, this is going to be used to discriminate against (veterans) and paint them as ‘unreliable’ (by employers),” their statement reads. “The possibility of being drafted at any moment for an indefinite term strips them of opportunities to create and care for families, run businesses.”
Ukraine has survived as an independent nation thanks to people mobilized in 2014-2015 and yet “the government offered no economic or social benefits in return,” the group said.
Ukraine authorized six mobilization campaigns during the hottest period of Russia’s war in the Donbas in 2014-2015. Nearly 110,000 civilians were drafted. Under the new law, all former soldiers who were honorably discharged after front-line deployments will be obligated to return to the ranks when summoned.
Despite years of NATO-style reforms, the armed forces have seen a constant exodus of highly-skilled personnel, especially combat-hardened Donbas veterans.
Over the years, thousands have left the military, complaining about its overwhelming bureaucracy, Soviet-style disorganization and extremely poor standards of service and social protection.
For years, even the most combat-capable units have been deployed to the Donbas with no more than 50% of their normal staff.
