Amid public censure, Ukraine MPs shelve bill to mobilize more troops to fight Russians

Ukrainian lawmakers have thrown out a controversial bill aimed at drafting more soldiers amid fierce criticism from the public.

Last month, the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky brought the bill to parliament, according to which tougher penalties will be handed down against draft dodgers and the age of military service will be lowered from 27 to 25.

The contested bill came to parliament days after Zelensky said the military wanted to mobilize up to half a million people to fight against the 600,000 or so Russian troops deployed in Ukraine.

“Some provisions directly violate human rights, some are not optimally formulated,” said ruling party leader David Arakhamia following a closed-door meeting with military leaders on Thursday.

Although the bill reduces compulsory wartime service from an unlimited period to 36 months, its other proposals have been deeply divisive in war-weary Ukraine, which counts around 850,000 soldiers among its ranks.

“We understand the request of the military command and are ready to meet it. But not all the rules can be supported,” Arakhamia further said, adding that the bill had been returned to the government.

Aside from being in need of fresh forces to replace the lost ones, Ukraine is also desperately in need of more arms and financial support from its Western allies, as Russia keeps boosting deployments on the frontlines.

“In short, there will be no developments under the law on mobilization, neither today, nor tomorrow, nor in the near future,” said Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an opposition lawmaker from the pro-EU liberal Holos party.

Separately on Thursday, Zelensky, who is in Estonia for a visit, acknowledged at a press conference that military-aged Ukrainian men had illegally left the country to evade army service. “If they are of mobilization age, then they should help Ukraine. And they should be in Ukraine.”

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Only Russia will benefit from truce: Zelensky

During his tour of the Baltic region, Zelensky said in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Thursday that any ceasefire now would not lead to political dialog and that any pause in the current war would only benefit Moscow, which, according to him, will regroup and boost its supply of munitions “and we will not risk.”

“The pause would not lead to an end of the war. It would not lead to political dialog with Russia or someone else... And thank god this is all decided in Ukraine and there will be no pauses to benefit Russia.”

Zelensky hopes to push back against fatigue among Kiev’s Western allies by paying visits to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are among his staunchest supporters in the European Union and NATO.

His trips to the three Baltic countries are also aimed at securing more financial and military aid, and discuss Ukraine’s bids to join the US-led military alliance and the European bloc.

Zelensky claimed Russia was facing a “deficit” of munitions and purportedly struggling to rebuild its elite troops, which, according to him, was influencing its battlefield behavior.

Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, Moscow has repeatedly warned Western leaders against the continued supply of weapons and munitions to Ukraine, pointing out that such measures will not stop Russian troops from defending its objectives and that arming Kiev would only prolong the war.

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