{"id":285520,"date":"2024-04-15T07:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285520"},"modified":"2024-04-16T06:48:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T06:48:29","slug":"at-war-until-you-die-ukraine-scraps-service-limit-angering-tired-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285520","title":{"rendered":"\u2018At war until you die\u2019: Ukraine scraps service limit, angering tired troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flags and photos of Ukrainian servicemen killed in the fighting in Independence Square, Kiev<\/p>\n

Mansur Mirovalev \u2013 Al Jazeera April 12, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

After almost two years of military service on the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Alina\u2019s husband is \u201cenraged\u201d about the new mobilisation law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s parliament adopted the law on Thursday after months of debates and almost 4,300 revisions.<\/p>\n

Alina said her husband, who requested anonymity, and brothers-in-arms are dumbfounded by the scrapping of service limits. Earlier versions of the law had envisaged demobilisation after 36 months of service.<\/p>\n

Without the limits \u2013 and with the failure of last year\u2019s counteroffensive and months-long delays of Western military aid \u2013 they realise that their service may only end with their disability or death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government humiliated and offended them,\u201d Alina, who lives in Kyiv with two children, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not eternal. They want to see their children grow, to be at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The demobilisation provision was scrapped at the request of Ukraine\u2019s top brass who cited a severe shortage of servicemen<\/a> on the front lines, especially in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy outnumbers us seven to 10 times,\u201d Joint Forces Commander Yurii Sodol told lawmakers on Wednesday, urging them to pass the law.<\/p>\n

But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not announced a formal mobilisation fearing backlash and protests, and preferring to focus on the law.<\/p>\n

The law was passed with 283 votes in favour in the 450-member parliament, mostly because Servant of the People, Zelenskyy\u2019s party that dominates the Verkhovna Rada, backed it.<\/p>\n

The law boosts pay for front-line service and death benefits for families, but Zelenskyy\u2019s political rivals lambast the scrapping of service limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that makes the law a whip without any stimuli,\u201d wrote Volodymyr Aryev, a lawmaker with the European Solidarity, a party centred around former President Petro Poroshenko. \u201cThe government wrote it to treat defenders like a resource, not like heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours after the law was adopted, the parliament urged the government to develop an additional bill on demobilisation and rotation of servicemen on the front lines.<\/p>\n

The scrapping of service limits predictably enraged seasoned soldiers \u2013 especially those who started their service in 2014, when Moscow backed pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine helping them carve out two separatist \u201cPeople\u2019s Republics\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowingly and voluntarily, I will become part of the most depraved category of citizens in my own country,\u201d Artem Osipyan, a psychologist-turned-serviceman, wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ukrainian conscripts. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWho will I be next? Do I have to always remain a serviceman? Has my life been that insignificant? What makes other people\u2019s lives more meaningful and less worthy of sacrifice than mine?\u201d he asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n

Younger servicemen also find the scrapping utterly confusing.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Taras signed up for three years of military service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was supposed to be like a job \u2013 three years in and then out,\u201d the bespectacled 23-year-old with sparse stubble on his suntanned face told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Like all other servicemen on active duty, he has to withhold his name and details of his service.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like I\u2019m serving until the victory\u201d over Russia, Taras said with a tight smile.<\/p>\n

To the families of servicemen, the uncertainty about demobilisation is depressing and demoralising.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be at war until you die, you need to know when your service ends,\u201d the wife of a soldier stationed in the eastern town of Kramatorsk told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

He husband joined the military in 2015 but switched to volunteer work after wounds that affected his walking.<\/p>\n

He went back to the service in 2022 and is still on the front line after suffering half a dozen contusions, developing problems with sight and digestion and spending weeks in hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be there until last man standing. Literally, last man,\u201d his wife said.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty about the service limits also repels potential conscripts.<\/p>\n

Within hours of the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022, volunteers thronged conscription offices, especially in eastern and central regions, and some even had to go to Ukraine\u2019s west to enlist.<\/p>\n

But the general enthusiasm sank after news of severe losses and horrible conditions in the trenches and military barracks amid the corruption of officers and suppliers.<\/p>\n

The mobilisation law envisages the creation of an electronic registry instead of the obsolete paper-based system that bred corruption.<\/p>\n

In the past two years, police and investigators have reported arrests of dozens of conscription officials.<\/p>\n

Some amassed millions of dollars in cash and bought pricey real estate in Ukraine and in Europe.<\/p>\n

Every man of fighting age will have 60 days to register in person or through the electronic registry, and those who do not will be considered draft dodgers.<\/p>\n

Men will have to have their registration papers on them at all times.<\/p>\n

Some servicemen say the mobilisation should go hand in hand with better training for conscripts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy is strong, it has enough resources, enough people \u2013 if you can call them that,\u201d a soldier stationed in the southern Kherson region told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people who are better trained, who understand what they\u2019ll be doing, what they\u2019re signing up for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forced conscription has already become a scourge all over Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In many rural areas, most men of fighting age have been drafted, while in urban centres potential soldiers avoid showing up in public places or using public transportation because of patrols of conscription officials and police officers.<\/p>\n

Some men are urged to go to conscription offices to simply clarify their personal details \u2013 but never come out in their civilian clothes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive guys I know went to a conscription office and didn\u2019t come back\u201d because they were dispatched to training bases right away, Tetiana Bozhko, who works at a hospital canteen in northern Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faced with manpower shortages, the Ukrainian parliament has passed new legislation that may mean military service only ends with disability or death <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":285521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285520"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285524,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285520\/revisions\/285524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/285521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}