Ukraine’s parliament passes controversial law to boost conscripts

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial law Thursday that will govern how the country recruits new soldiers to replenish depleted forces that are increasingly struggling to fend off Russian troops.

Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion captured nearly a quarter of the country, the stakes could not be higher for Kyiv. After a string of victories in the first year of the war, fortunes have turned for the Ukrainian military, which is dug in, outgunned and outnumbered. Troops are beset by shortages in soldiers and ammunition, as well as doubts about the supply of Western aid .

Lawmakers dragged their feet for months over the new law, and it is expected to be unpopular. It comes about a week after Ukraine lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25.

The law will become effective a month after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs it, though it’s unclear when he would. It took him months to sign the law reducing conscription age.

It was passed Thursday against a backdrop of an escalating Russian campaign that has devastated Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks. Authorities said Russian overnight missile and drone attacks again struck infrastructure and power facilities across several regions and completely destroyed the Trypilska thermal power plant, the largest power-generating facility in the Kyiv region.

With Russia increasingly seizing the initiative, the law came in response to a request from Ukraine’s military, which wants to mobilize up to 500,000 more troops, Zelenskyy said in December. Incumbent army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and Zelenskyy have since revised that figure down because soldiers can be rotated from the rear. But officials haven’t said how many are needed.

The law — which was watered down from its original form — will make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country, where even in war many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.

But it’s unclear that Ukraine, with its ongoing ammunition shortages, has the ability to arm large numbers of recruits without a fresh injection of Western aid.

Earlier this month, Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst at the Center for Applied Political Studies Penta, said the law is crucial for Ukraine’s ability to keep up the fight against Russia , even though it is painful for Ukrainian society.

“A large part of the people do not want their loved ones to go to the front, but at the same time they want Ukraine to win,” he said.

Thursday’s vote came after the parliamentary defense committee removed a key provision from the bill that would rotate out troops who served 36 months of combat — a key promise of the Ukrainian leadership. Lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said in a Telegram post that he was shocked by the move to remove the provision.

The committee instructed the Defence Ministry to draft a separate bill on demobilization within several months, news reports cited ministry spokesperson Dmytro Lazutkin as saying.

Exhausted soldiers, on the front lines since Russia invaded in February 2022, have no means of rotating out for rest. But considering the scale and intensity of the war against Russia, coming up with a system of rest will prove difficult to implement.

Ukraine already suffers from a lack of trained recruits capable of fighting, and demobilizing soldiers on the front lines now would deprive Ukrainian forces of their most capable fighters.

In nighttime missile and drone attacks, at least 10 of the strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region were without power and Russia “is trying to destroy Kharkiv’s infrastructure and leave the city in darkness.”

Ukraine’s leaders have pleaded for more air defense systems — aid that has been slow in coming.

Four people were killed and five injured in an attack on the city of Mykolaiv on Thursday, the regional governor, Vitalii Kim, said. In the Odesa region, four people were killed and 14 injured in Russian missile strikes Wednesday evening, said Gov. Oleh Kiper.

Energy facilities were also hit in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions.

乌克兰基辅——乌克兰议会周四通过了一项备受争议的法律，该法律将规范该国如何招募新兵以补充兵力不足的部队，这些部队越来越难以抵御俄罗斯军队的进攻。

俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰两年后，占领了该国近四分之一的领土，基辅面临的形势空前严峻。战争第一年乌克兰军队曾取得一系列胜利，但如今形势逆转，他们陷入困境，装备落后，兵力也处于劣势。部队不仅面临士兵和弹药短缺的困境，还对西方援助的供应感到担忧。

议员们对这项新法律的通过拖延了数月之久，预计该法律将不受欢迎。就在大约一周前，乌克兰刚刚将男性应征入伍年龄从27岁降至25岁。

该法律将在泽连斯基总统签署后一个月生效，但目前尚不清楚他何时会签署。此前，他花了数月时间才签署了降低征兵年龄的法律。

这项协议于周四获得通过，而与此同时，俄罗斯的军事行动不断升级，近几周来已对乌克兰的能源基础设施造成了严重破坏。乌克兰当局称，俄罗斯连夜使用导弹和无人机再次袭击了多个地区的基础设施和电力设施，并彻底摧毁了基辅地区最大的发电厂——特里皮尔斯卡火力发电厂。

随着俄罗斯日益掌握主动权，这项法律的出台是为了回应乌克兰军方的要求。泽连斯基在去年12月表示，乌克兰军方希望增派至多50万兵力。现任陆军总司令奥列克桑德·瑟尔斯基和泽连斯基后来都下调了这一数字，因为士兵可以从后方轮换。但官员们尚未透露究竟需要多少兵力。

这项法律——虽然比最初的版本有所削弱——将使识别该国所有符合征兵条件的男性变得更加容易，即使在战争时期，许多人也通过避免与当局接触来逃避征兵。

但目前还不清楚，在弹药持续短缺的情况下，如果没有西方新的援助注入，乌克兰是否有能力武装大量新兵。

本月初，应用政治研究中心 Penta 的分析师 Volodymyr Fesenko 表示，尽管该法律给乌克兰社会带来了痛苦，但它对于乌克兰继续与俄罗斯斗争的能力至关重要。

他说：“很大一部分人不希望自己的亲人上前线，但同时他们又希望乌克兰取得胜利。”

周四的投票是在议会国防委员会从法案中删除一项关键条款之后进行的。该条款原本旨在轮换服役满36个月的战斗部队——这是乌克兰领导层的重要承诺。议员奥列克西·贡恰连科在Telegram上发帖称，他对删除该条款的举动感到震惊。

据新闻报道，国防部发言人德米特罗·拉祖特金表示，委员会指示国防部在几个月内起草一份单独的复员法案。

自2022年2月俄罗斯入侵以来，疲惫不堪的士兵一直奋战在前线，根本没有轮换休息的办法。但考虑到对俄战争的规模和强度，制定一套轮换制度的实施将十分困难。

乌克兰目前缺乏训练有素、能够作战的新兵，现在让前线士兵复员将使乌克兰军队失去最能打的战士。

在夜间导弹和无人机袭击中，至少有10次袭击破坏了乌克兰第二大城市哈尔科夫的能源基础设施。乌克兰外交部长德米特罗·库列巴表示，该地区超过20万人断电，俄罗斯“正试图摧毁哈尔科夫的基础设施，使这座城市陷入黑暗”。

乌克兰领导人一直呼吁提供更多防空系统——但援助迟迟未能到位。

尼古拉耶夫市周四遭到袭击，造成4人死亡，5人受伤，地区州长维塔利·金表示。敖德萨州州长奥列格·基佩尔称，周三晚间，俄罗斯导弹袭击造成4人死亡，14人受伤。

扎波罗热州和利沃夫州的能源设施也遭到袭击。