Ukraine plans to change the way it enforces military service, using commercial companies to convince young people to join the army.
Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on November 27 that a new policy on military service would be announced this week. Ukraine plans to set up recruitment companies to better target the mobilization of soldiers and reassure recruits that they will be assigned to tasks that match their skills, not all of them being sent to the front lines.
Head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov in Kiev in December 2021. Photo: Reuters
In early September, President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and appointed Rustem Umerov to replace him. Umerov was in charge of negotiations with Russia at the beginning of the conflict. Zelensky said last week that he expected the Defense Ministry, under Umerov, to present a new recruitment policy this week.
"The plan will be presented and all the answers will be in it. I will see the plan next week," Mr. Zelensky said.
Mr Danilov said the army would work with Ukraine's two largest recruitment companies to identify people with special skills, as well as convince professionals who want to help the army but do not want to go to the front.
"The recruitment process will be more flexible, announcing the required expertise, and participants will volunteer to take on a specific position, possibly a welder, mechanic...", he said.
A Ukrainian Defense Ministry source confirmed that contracts had been signed with military recruitment companies but did not give further details.
Mr. Zelensky wants Ukraine to adopt a new recruitment policy as the conflict with Russia enters its second winter. Ukraine's unsuccessful counteroffensive in the summer and fall left the country with heavy losses and requiring more manpower and material resources in a long-term war with Russia.
A growing number of Ukraine's Western partners believe Kiev should consider ending the war through negotiations, but President Zelensky firmly opposes it, declaring that the territories controlled by Russia must be recaptured at all costs.
Hong Hanh (According to Guardian )
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