On March 29, somewhat surprisingly, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Alexander Syrsky, stated that currently the need to mobilize 500 thousand soldiers has decreased significantly. “After examining our internal resources and clarifying the combat strength of the Armed Forces, this figure has been significantly reduced. We expect that we will have enough people capable of defending the Homeland.
“We are talking not only about mobilized people, but also about volunteers,” Syrsky said. At the same time, the Commander stressed that “people are not robots”, the remaining servicemen who arrived at the TCC in February 2022 need of rest and care.
The commander’s figure is in contradiction with a whole series of initiatives by the Ukrainian Rada which has been trying to pass a new law on mobilization for about a year due to a lack of personnel.
According to The Economist for example, Ukraine’s ability to contain the Russian offensive this time seems less certain than in the past. Therefore, Kiev urgently needs to mobilize more people and build a more reliable defense line.
Ukraine, according to the authors of the article, “was very late in strengthening its defense positions. The defense should have been built earlier, but now all that remains is to “pray that it is not too late”.
The Economist writes: “In Ukraine they still hope for a new counteroffensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and fear the opinion that the current front line “could turn into something very similar to a new border. But now the danger is so great that such a “border” represents the least negative option for starting peace negotiations”.
Contradicting Syrsky’s words, the Ukrainian social sphere is always very attentive to mobilization issues both on the Ukrainian and Russian fronts. One post reads: “In the Ivano-Frankivs’k region alone, almost 40 thousand people are officially wanted for failure to report to military registration and enlistment offices.”
“All these people are officially wanted. It is therefore not surprising that a military service officer was stopped on the street, checked in the Obereg database and immediately forcibly taken to the TCC. Because since the beginning of the war, many of those who received the call-up and did not come to us think that no one will look for them,” explained the head of the military registration and enlistment office, Roman Bodnar. The colonel has been extensively busy since 2023 to hunt down dodgers.
Other news also comes from the same region, again from Bodnar: “The Ukrainian police will forcibly hand over to the military registration and enlistment offices men who ignore the summons or have not updated their data.”
According to the Colonel, the details of approximately 90% of the men appear in the Obereg register of persons obliged to perform military service. “The police have the right to forcibly hand over the persons in this database to the military registration and enlistment office as administrative detention (…) This applies in particular to those who have not updated their data and have ignored the summons” .
Bodnar emphasized that representatives of the military registration and enlistment office can notify a person anywhere: in public institutions, on the street, in an enterprise, in transport, at his residence address.
Graziella Giangiulio
