Ukraine’s new mobilization law: not effective enough? | DW News

Ukraine’s new mobilization law: not effective enough? | DW News

to Ukraine now where at least two people
have been killed and several wounded in
the latest Russian air strikes on K
Ukraine’s second city is close to the
Russian border and has increasingly been
the target of attacks in Western Ukraine
at least five people were killed and 30
wounded in a Russian missile attack on
the key Black Sea port of adessa one of
the buildings badly damaged was this law
school commonly known as the Harry
Potter castle of adessa now with the
line situation worsening Ukraine has
been stepping up recruitment efforts as
part of a new mobilization law ke has
stopped issuing passports and providing
Consular services for military age men
our next report looks at what this means
for ukrainians abroad including here in
Germany the line outside the Ukrainian
passport service in Cologne
Germany Ukrainian men hid their faces
from the camera trying to get their
documents before the new law on
mobilization came into Force without
success the passport office said it was
experiencing a technical failure that
meant that not only draft evaders but
all ukrainians of military age could not
obtain their documents s left the
country legally before Russia invaded
Ukraine his son will soon be 17 and
plans to study in Ukraine the family
would like to go
back both my sons and my passports are
ready but I cannot get them Ukraine they
say your passport is in Germany and in
Germany they say we’re not giving it to
you the technical failure in Ukrainian
passport services abroad coincided with
the Ukrainian foreign ministry’s
announcement that men of mobilization
age would be able to obtain passports
only in
Ukraine starting on May 18th all male
citizens of Ukraine who are abroad will
be required to register for military
service however it is not yet clear
exactly how to do this outside the
country and what documents to
submit meanwhile lawyers say all male
Ukrainian citizens including those who
have lived abroad since birth are
subject to the
draft the German government has not yet
commented on kev’s decision to stop
providing these counselor services but
the interior Ministry assured that
Ukrainian men would not be deprived of
refugee status in
Germany I’m confident that this will not
affect the status of refugees from
Ukraine who need protection regardless
of whether they are women who are the
vast majority of such refugees or men
this status is valid directly throughout
the European Union precisely because of
the flight from the Russian war of
aggression so it should not affect
it but when DW asked whether Ukrainian
men could receive German documents with
an expired Ukrainian passport the
ministry said that this would be
announced later
Ukraine’s government meanwhile says that
Ukrainian men have not only rights but
also responsibilities including
protecting the
state and it is necessary to regulate
the situation when many men of military
age live
abroad on the other hand Poland says it
will help return Ukrainian men of
conscription age when their passports
expire if Kev requests
it all right let’s get some analysis
from military expert Frank ledwich hi
Frank good to see you um tell us is this
new mobilization law the answer to
boosting Ukraine’s military to helping
it defend itself more
effectively good morning Ana it’s not
the answer it’s a
component the answer is another
component a major component would be to
encourage more volunteers and that means
improving the offer for those who have
not yet uh volunteered for the flag it’s
worth remembering the precept that one
uh volunteer is worth 10 pressed men of
the kind you’re seeing there on that on
that
report one other observation I’d like to
make as well is that uh I was in Kiev
last week and it took me about 10
minutes to count the equivalent of a
rifle company in one of the wealthier
areas of Kiev and uh uh it’s very clear
that very many people of military age
people not married not with with
children I didn’t count those count 100
people less than 10 minutes I count
uh those people should be the targets
perhaps before trying to press unwilling
uh people outside the country so look
there’s a whole package of measures this
has been uh this mobilization law has
taken a long time to go through and I
suspect it’s going to take a few months
to to to get into uh into some kind of
routine as you as you see and and one
part of this mobilization law is the
fact that the age of mobilization has
been uh reduced from 27 to 25 I mean
just a quick question about that aspect
of it is that going to make a big
difference a lot of people talk about
the the fact that 18 to 25 which of
course usually the the average age of of
combat soldiers those people are not
subject to mobilization the reason for
that is very simple an and that is
because Ukraine has a real demographic
problem at that age but eventually
they’ll fall within the uh the 25e
mobilization uh uh limit but I just come
back to it there are plenty of people in
Ukraine who are not yet mobilized and we
the ukrainians should look at those and
encourage them to volunteer the best way
to do that is to offer them good
conditions good training good pay and
good care should they be wounded and
very few of those things apply right now
you know I mean I saw one advert
brigades adver advertise in Kiev
individually and one Brigade was
advertising the fact as a Competitive
Edge that they offered 60 days training
everybody should get that kind of
training it shouldn’t be something
that’s uh you know that offers some kind
of Edge and the moment things look to be
honest out from the outside a little bit
disorganized to put it mildly yeah um we
saw in in our report obviously there are
a good number of ukrainians abroad will
other countries actively support
Ukraine’s mobilization efforts so for
example if you have a Ukrainian man
who’s abroad his passport has expired
will the country he’s in send him home
again the lithuanians have the polls as
as the report indicated have said they
will but look it’s not a good look is it
deporting men who came as refugees uh to
to go and fight and and and in in terms
of casualties casualties extremely high
very possibly die or get seriously
injured that’s not a good look and it is
worth saying that uh I mean I know
people who are Ukrainian people who are
overseas and one can understand their
position I’m not one of those who say
well you must go and fight for your
country country um there are plenty of
people within the borders who are not
yet touched by the uh Ukrainian armed
forces and particularly perhaps in the
uh uh let’s put it this way the middle
classes Frank you said that there is
sort of an air of disorganization about
all of this looking ahead I mean does
Ukraine have a clear strategy for
achieving its goals in this
war well the alen’s 10-point plan which
includes the return of Crimea donbass
and uh Putin in in the international
criminal court or relevant tribunal and
candidly none of these things are going
to happen so the answer at this point is
no I think Ukraine needs to be and
indeed perhaps even more importantly the
West I’ve been arguing this now for 18
months should develop a strategy and and
advocate for that strategy which is
realistic and attainable and there are
precedents historically for that it’s
worth remembering that Ukraine has
already won this war to the extent that
it’s preserved its sovereignty the
question is the extent to which
territory will be will be U Ukrainian
and uh right now the 10-point strategy
is simply not achievable and that’s an
an unfortunate fact and it’s very it’s
very difficult to say but that’s that’s
the way it is Frank we always appreciate
your analysis thank you so much that’s
military expert Frank
LED thank
you DW’s Eastern Europe editor Roman
gono is following this story Roman
Ukrainian consulates say they are
experiencing technical problems issuing
passports is that just an excuse what do
you make of
that well it looks like um Ukraine is
indeed in a very dire situation um so
the Russian army is advancing and
Ukraine is not having enough ammunition
and not enough men uh to stop that um
and in this situation the Ukrainian
government is improvising this is
obvious so there is this new
conscription law that we’ve heard that
will come into force in May and um there
is a this stop of all legal services not
just um not just issuing passports for
Ukrainian men of cons conscription age
um uh there are also some changing
changes um we’ve heard that those who
applied before um April 25th they will
get their passport so uh this this is a
sign of improvisation this will be
regulated I think in the coming weeks
because there are hundreds of thousands
of Ukrainian men of conscriptions a
conscription age leaving abroad but um a
lot of them um um have um absolutely
legal reasons not to go to fight so they
lived here or they have more than two
children three and more uh some of them
are um may may have illnesses so um
there they it will take time to regulate
this issue but Ukraine has no time at
the moment because the situation as I’ve
said is very very
dangerous but stopping to provide legal
service serves to your citizens uh
abroad that’s uh that’s quite a quite a
move uh is it legally acceptable Roman
for a country to stop issuing passports
to Men of military age because this
sounds like it could be a basic rights
issue are there no International
regulations on
this absolutely so um Ukraine is saying
that they um they they have suspended um
issu in passports or or providing legal
services to ukrainians uh Ukrainian men
living abroad um I think they will
change that regulation uh so that it is
um in compliance with international law
at the moment it is it is um an issue of
debate between lawyers in Ukraine itself
and abroad uh what is possible what is
not possible it could be problematic
that the this um suspension came before
the new mobilization law uh came into
Force so we will see in the coming days
if there are any claims legal claims
against the Ukrainian government so
where just leave all those Ukrainian men
living abroad what options do they have
in this
situation well the the obvious options
are um they basically what Ukrainian
government wants them to do is to
register to register in the registry
where the Ukrainian government can see
if those people can be called up to
fight or they cannot so uh if they do
that um they can just continue living as
they lived before maybe they will be
drawn to right in the Army but on the
other hand some part of them could be um
pushed into illegality we don’t know how
many Roman thank you very much that was
DW’s Eastern Europe editor Roman gono

At least two people have been killed and several wounded in the latest Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, and has increasingly been the target of attacks.

In western Ukraine, at least five people were killed and 30 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa. One of the buildings badly damaged was a law school commonly known as the ‘Harry Potter castle’ of Odesa.

With the frontline situation worsening, Ukraine has been stepping up recruitment efforts. As part of a new mobilization law, Kyiv has stopped issuing passports and providing consular services for military-age men. Our next report looks at what this means for Ukrainians abroad.

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