Ukraine continues to postpone promised demobilisations

The Ukrainian authorities continue to postpone the promised demobilisation of the military.

The last time the Defence Ministry said that the draft law on demobilization might appear in April.

Now the deputy head of the presidential office, Pavlo Palisa, says that this year, without specifying when exactly, they want to introduce contracts for the previously mobilised with a clear term of service. He added that this would be an ‘alternative’ to demobilisation.

According to him, volunteers and the forcibly mobilised will be able to sign such a contract, under which those mobilised in 2022 will be able to leave service, conditionally, after six months; those mobilised in 2023, after 9-10 months; and in 2024, after an even longer period of time.

Palisa, however, emphasised that the launch of such a project will only be possible when ‘certain conditions’ are in place.

‘We cannot bare the front, we cannot deprive the combat element of the ability to fulfil the task. A large team of people is working on creating these conditions,’ Palisa said.

Recall, earlier the threat to ‘bare the front’ the command explained the removal of the norm on demobilisation after 36 months from the draft law on mobilisation adopted last year.

The authorities later argued the same reasoning for postponing the decision on demobilisation.

In January, the Rada said that in the near future it would not demobilise military personnel who had served for several years. We are talking about a time period of the next three months.