Ukraine’s parliament began voting on key changes to its mobilization law on Wednesday. The current bill is the second that the President has presented Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to speed up the entry of new recruits, with the dual aim of strengthening their defenses at the front and giving exhausted soldiers a chance to rest.
If passed, the law would reduce the number of exemptions from military service, require all potential soldiers to update their contacts and other personal information online at recruiting centers, and increase penalties for evading conscription. It also aims to ensure that all new recruits have more time to prepare and receive more training before being sent to the front.
Mobilization in Ukraine has been underway since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion almost two years ago. But although hundreds of thousands joined the army voluntarily in the first few months, finding new soldiers gradually became more difficult as some tried to exploit many existing loopholes in the current law.
The issue became one of the main points of contention between the country’s political and military leaders. The general Valeri Zaluzhni He noted that mobilization numbers fell after Zelensky fired all heads of regional recruiting centers for corruption. “We must recognize the enemy’s significant advantage in mobilizing human resources and compare it with the inability of Ukraine’s state institutions to increase the number of our armed forces without using unpopular measures,” Ukraine’s commander-in-chief wrote last week in his article for CNN.
The decline in support from foreign allies is another issue that will increasingly influence the war, Zaluzhni emphasized. While the Republicans are loyal Donald Trump While the United States blocks the most important package of military and financial aid worth $60 billion, it is the EU that is trying to increase its military and financial aid to the invaded country. Brussels will try to send Ukraine in March the first tranches of the 50 billion euro package, which it finally approved after overcoming opposition from the Hungarian prime minister. Viktor Orban.
“Europe stands by its word. “We will continue to provide much-needed funding and predictability to our brave partner and aspiring member,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen wrote on Tuesday. In the meantime, Josep BorrellHead of EU diplomacy, visited Kiev to discuss “the EU’s unwavering support for Ukraine” and reforms on its path to the alliance.
The massive missile attack launched by Russia during the night forced the Spanish politician to go to the hotel shelter in Kiev. At least four residents of an apartment block died and 38 were injured after rocket fragments caused major fires and destroyed several apartments. Strong explosions also occurred in Kharkiv, where local police said they had found remains of North Korean missiles, as well as in Mykolaiv and Drohobych in the Lviv region. “We have to do more and faster,” emphasized Borrell, who explained that President Zelensky had asked him for more air defense, drones and ammunition.
On the way to Kiev, Borrell stopped in Warsaw, where he called on EU member states to temporarily stop arms exports to other countries and direct them to Ukraine instead. Borrell announced that the EU would only send 520,000 of the promised millions of artillery shells to Ukraine by March. However, he promised in Kiev that the EU would deliver 1.155 million artillery shells this year.
Ammunition shortages are becoming an increasingly serious problem for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines as they hold off Russian pressure while firing four to five times fewer artillery shells than the Russians.
According to reports from the front, Russia is deliberately using the “meat threshold” tactic to take advantage of the lack of ammunition and the increased number of soldiers. The initial aim is to send groups of poorly trained and poorly equipped soldiers against Ukrainian positions. Although most die in battle, this helps to exhaust the defending side and gather valuable information, which is then used by more experienced and skilled soldiers who launch another attack.
This means that even though Ukraine says it kills around 1,000 Russian soldiers every day, Russia continues to press ahead. Although there is currently no great progress, the situation for Ukraine in Avdiivka is very complicated. It could be the first city of about 30,000 pre-war residents to be captured by Russia since Bakhmut a year ago, with Vladimir Putin looking to demonstrate at least some success ahead of March elections.
Their attack units have entered former residential areas east of the ruins of the coking coal power plant and are already threatening to cut off Ukrainian communications in the area, writes war reporter Illia Ponomarenko, who also confirms the developments. Russians south of the city. “Drones contribute in some way to alleviating the serious weapons shortage in Ukraine. Many of them give Avdiivka the opportunity to move forward,” he writes in X.
Zaluzhni is also pinning his hopes on drones, as a number of initiatives are growing across the country to teach citizens how to assemble small “suicide” drones in their homes. These drones are used not only to destroy Russian military vehicles and weapons, but also to repel infantry attacks while the howitzers remain inactive due to a lack of projectiles.
As Russia rapidly increases its own production of drones and defense equipment, the need for faster and larger arms supplies from the West remains critical to Ukraine’s defense, although most analysts agree.