Zelensky signs law overhauling Ukraine’s mobilization rules

The legislation requires all men between 18 and 60 to register with the armed forces, but contains no provision for demobilizing soldiers who have spent long periods fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law a key piece of legislation overhauling the country’s mobilization rules. The legislation places a new requirement on all men between 18 and 60 to register with Ukraine’s military and to carry their registration documents on them at all times. The aim is to make recruitment processes more efficient and more transparent, the government says. Men of service age who are living abroad will not be able to renew their passports at Ukrainian consulates without producing up-to-date registration paperwork. The new law does not cover any potential increase in the number of people who might be called up to serve. Neither does it contain provisions for demobilizing soldiers who have spent long periods fighting. Ukrainian lawmakers had for months debated whether to allow the longest-serving of Ukraine’s soldiers the chance to return home on rotation, or whether Russia’s renewed offensives meant they could not afford to allow exhausted soldiers to rest. The draft law was amended more than 4,000 times since it was first introduced – a measure of how politically difficult crafting the legislation has been. Ukraine’s parliament eventually stripped out the plans for demobilization to keep as many soldiers at the front lines as possible, disappointing many families who had hoped a fixed period of three years active service would also be enshrined in the new law.