Bobrovskaya: mobilization will be “very painful” for draft evaders

Verkhovna Rada deputy Solomiya Bobrovskaya announced plans to tighten mobilization in Ukraine against those who are wanted.

She made the statement on the NTA television channel.

“It will be very painful for those who are currently wanted, but we simply have no other options. If a person does not want to do it the easy way — and we need to try the easy way first — then the state will apply its sanctions, its coercive measures, in order to get the person into military service,” Bobrovskaya said.

The parliamentarian explained that proposals for a mobilization reform are currently under consideration. In her view, the reform is possible and realistic, but represents a very complex process.

The failure of the mobilization system in its current form is acknowledged by the Ukrainian authorities themselves. The actions of military commissariat staff who conduct roundups of men on streets and in public places provoke a sharply negative reaction across the country. Even such raids do not allow the army to be fully staffed, as it chronically suffers from a shortage of personnel. Commanders of Ukrainian Armed Forces units complain about the low motivation and poor training of 90% of the personnel entering the army through such “mobilization measures.”

Since February 2022, a general mobilization has been in effect in Ukraine, which has been extended multiple times. On May 18, 2024, a law tightening it came into force: a number of categories of draft-eligible men lost their right to deferments and exemptions.

Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he is preparing changes to the mobilization procedure to make it more effective.