Ukraine: New drafts in autumn

by Connection e.V.

(28.09.2018) September 27, the deputy chief of the department of conscription and manning at the General Staff of the Ukrainian army, Colonel Valeriy Dendebera announced, that about 18,000 people are to be drafted into the Ukrainian army as part of the autumn conscription campaign October to Dezember 2018. He said: “According to a presidential decree and a government ordinance, measures will be taken in October-December on the conscription of citizens for fixed-term military service. It is planned to draft and send 17,960 people to the troops, including 9,010 to the Armed Forces, 6,500 to the National Guard, 1,550 to the State Border Guard Service, and 900 people to the State Special Transport Service.”

It is planned to conscript 744 people in Kyiv. Up to 1850 people planned to be recruited in Dnipropetrovsk region, and 260 people in Luhansk region. $2.3 million will be spent to hold the campaign.

Compared with the autumn campaign last year, as Denbera added, the number of conscripts had grown by 3,000 due to an increase in the number of young people to be drafted to the State Border Guard Service and the National Guard.

2017 autumn conscription has been marked by a number of scandals. Military commissioners in Kyiv and Lviv were raiding on recruits. Urgent service evaders were delivered to military registration and enlistment offices and served call-up papers. Moreover, one of the military enlistment offices in Lviv region published the personal data of 15 thousand recruits, who evaded the service. The representatives of the military commissioners claimed that the forced detention of conscripts didn’t take place, the Police denied their involvement in the raids.

The conscription was reintroduced in May 2014. The length of the military service for conscripts is between 12 and 18 months. Since 2014 mass refusal and evasion took place because of the war in Donbass. The right of conscientious objection is restricted to members of several religious communities.

Sources: 112.international, September 26,2018, ukrinform.net, September 27, 2018, ukraine-journal.de, November 27, 2017 and Opinion of Connection e.V., January 31, 2018

Keywords:    ⇒ Conscription   ⇒ Recruitment   ⇒ Ukraine