The new law, approved on April 11 by the parliament, with 283 votes in favor and 49 against, after about four thousand corrections to the text, and immediately enacted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expands eligibility for service in the Armed Forces and imposes restrictions on military-age men abroad.

However, the initial purpose of demobilizing the military for more than three years in service, including those who have been exhausted on the front lines since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, was left out.

Here are the key points of the new law:

Military registration and recruitment age 

The minimum recruitment age is reduced from 27 to 25 years, which means that men from this age group are eligible to fight.

In return, the State undertakes to provide basic training to new recruits before sending them to the front lines, with benefits planned for the acquisition of goods such as a house or a car.

Some analysts fear that this age reduction could affect the availability of working-age population to feed an economy devastated by the war, which is why the minimum age is not 18, as is the case in many countries.

At the same time, the law obliges Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 to update their data and keep the documents in their possession under all circumstances, also because the police can ask for them on the street. The aim is to facilitate the identification of the entire population fit for military service, when many citizens avoided interactions with the authorities to escape recruitment.

In another innovation, people who own more than one motor vehicle may have to give one of them to the Armed Forces.

Women continue to be excluded from compulsory recruitment rules, but those with medical or pharmaceutical training must register, although they can only be mobilized with their consent.

The new law allows the recruitment of citizens convicted of minor crimes, but only prisoners who have already served three years in prison or people with suspended sentences can apply, excluding serious crimes such as murder, rape and cases involving national security or corruption.

Martial law in force since the beginning of the invasion continues to prohibit men of military age from leaving the country without authorization, which has not prevented many from doing so illegally, in addition to serious cases of bribes being discovered in the Ministry of Defense to obtain exemption from military service.

Exceptions

First and foremost, there are the health conditions that were already foreseen. However, the status of limited physical fitness is eliminated, which means that there will only be two possible options: fit and unfit. With the entry into force of the law, all citizens who have previously been declared partially fit for service by the military medical commission will be required to undergo a second examination.

Among several valid reasons for exemption from military service are students and parents of families with more than three minor children, but also those who have an incapacitated parent in their care, in addition to close relatives who have died or disappeared during the Russian invasion or in the "Revolution of Dignity" in 2014.

Punishments

Those who disregard the rules of mobilization are subject to fines of varying degrees, as well as being prevented from driving vehicles in the country. In the first versions of the document, it was foreseen to freeze assets or even access to bank accounts. However, these measures were dropped following protests at the parliament and in several regions of Ukraine and accusations of unconstitutionality of the punishments.

Recruitment abroad

Men residing abroad are also required to update their data, under penalty of the consular services not renewing their passports.

According to a clarification to Lusa from the Ukrainian Embassy in Portugal, in order to implement the provisions of the new law, technical changes were necessary in the algorithms of the information and communication systems of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to a temporary suspension, since April 23, of requests from eligible men in the consular services, with the exception of the issuance of an identity card to return to the country.

At this moment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working with government agencies to create a mechanism to update and verify data on compulsory recruitment.

The current temporary suspension does not apply to emergency cases or to those concerning the requirements of the children of Ukrainians covered by the new law.

According to data from the United Nations, there are more than 6.4 million Ukrainian refugees, of whom 5.9 million are in Europe, the vast majority being women and children.

In Portugal, Ukrainians are one of the largest foreign communities, with about 60 thousand registered immigrants, which has been reinforced since the Russian invasion, with 59,532 Temporary Protection titles issued to refugees, according to data from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), of which 1,566 have already requested cancellation of their respective title.

The Embassy did not clarify how many of these people are covered by the new mobilization law.

Demobilization

This is the most controversial aspect of the legislation, as it does not contemplate a time limit for withdrawal from military service. The first versions of the document provided for a period of 36 months, but, in the end, the combatants who have been on the front lines since the beginning of the large-scale invasion still do not know when they will be able to leave the Armed Forces.

Protests have been registered in several regions of the country, especially from women of military personnel who are on the front lines and several testimonies of soldiers have been released, giving an account of their tiredness and feeling of injustice.

Separate legislation on this matter is expected to be introduced in the coming months.

Ukraine's needs

The new law could add about 50 thousand soldiers, according to analysts' estimates, which would be a tenth of a number advanced before its approval by the former commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, replaced last February, and who claimed half a million additional military personnel.

Later, the Ukrainian President stated that an audit requested by the new commander of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, determined that that number was wrong, in part because existing troops could be sent from the rear to the front lines.

Statistics from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense indicate that the country's Armed Forces had about 800 thousand military personnel in October, excluding the National Guard or other units. In total, about one million Ukrainians were mobilized in some way, of which less than a third were on the front lines.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky provided for the first time a concrete number of Ukrainian deaths, pointing to 31 thousand, well below the approximately 70 thousand indicated in a US military report released last summer by The New York Times, long before the major offensives in the east of the country by Russian forces, which are said to have suffered twice as many casualties since February 2022.

The new legislation comes into force at a time when Russia has the initiative in the war, taking advantage of its superiority in men and weapons until the military and financial support promised by Kyiv's allies, in particular the aid of more than 57 billion euros approved last month in the United States, has an impact on the ground.

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