In difficulty on the battlefield, where kyiv is seriously lacking in soldiers, Ukraine plans to bring back men of fighting age from abroad.
According to estimates, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have illegally fled the country since the start of the war to avoid being mobilized.
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More than two years of war in Ukraine
It’s not just weapons that kyiv lacks. More than two years after the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine faces the challenge of mobilization. Today there are nearly 500,000 men missing on the front to support the war effort. In difficulty facing Russian troops, who are advancing in the east of the country, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, announced on Tuesday April 23 that “measures” Imminent measures were going to be taken to bring back men of fighting age who were abroad.
“The fact of staying abroad does not exempt a citizen from his duties towards his homeland”has indicated https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1782698433440096360 the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, explaining that he had ordered “measures to restore equity between men of draft age in Ukraine and those abroad”. Dmytro Kouleba did not specify their nature, limiting himself to saying that his ministry would “provide clarifications soon” on new procedures to follow for “access consular services”.
In the process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced “a temporary suspension of the receipt of new applications for consular services concerning the mentioned category of Ukrainian citizens”, specifying that this concerned men aged 18 to 60. According to this Source, only the supply of “identity cards to enter Ukraine” is maintained for this category of men.
They fled to avoid being mobilized
Ukraine prohibits men of fighting age from traveling abroad, with few exceptions. But according to media estimates, tens of thousands of men have fled the country illegally to avoid being sent to the front. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians also lived abroad before the invasion.
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Many Ukrainian personalities criticized this announcement, deeming it ineffective, even illegal. “This will not force any man who has gone abroad (…) to return to Ukraine and go and fight”, said Serguï Petoukhov, former Deputy Minister of Justice, on Facebook. The head of the Ukrainian NGO Helsinki Union, Oleksandr Pavlitchenko, estimated that this decision would only harm the country’s reputation abroad, going so far as to describe it as a“abuse of power”.
