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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Ukraine’s new Mobilisation Law, which allows prisoners to join the army, will not help Kiev fill its ranks as the prison population is not even big enough to cover for one month’s losses in the war devastated country. Even more alarmingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, prison wardens are using changes in the mobilisation law as an opportunity to illegally extort money.
There are currently about 46,000 people in Ukrainian prisons and detention centres, which Ukrainian officials say is a pool that could enable the mobilisation of 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners. The whole prison population cannot be mobilised since the law prohibits those convicted of serious crimes, such as premeditated murder, rape and sexual violence, and crimes against national security from joining the Ukrainian military.
In any case, even if they could be recruited it would not solve Kiev’s immense manpower problems considering that the Ukrainian army suffers monthly losses of 50,000 personnel. At the same time, with information being so widespread today, including in prison, it is doubtful that there will be many willing to leave incarceration and go to the front where they face certain death by artillery, aerial bombs, drones, and other unrelenting means employed by Russian forces.
A law signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky allowing some Ukrainian convicts to serve in the army in exchange for the possibility of parole is seen by even Western analysts as a move that underscores Kiev’s desperate attempts to replenish its ranks after more than two years of war.
According to Kiev, about 4,000 prisoners submitted a request to join the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and some of them have already gone to the front. Kiev even announced the creation of assault squads from the mobilised criminals, showing how critical the manpower issue has become.
After more than two years of special military operations, due to terrible trench battles, huge losses and defeats on the battlefield, the enthusiasm for enlisting in the army in Ukraine is declining. Even the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, previously admitted that in the first six months of the war, “everyone who wanted to” join the army already did and that now because Ukrainians are not motivated to serve and are trying to avoid mobilisation in every possible way, the forced mobilisation in Ukraine and new amendments in the law to allow for new recruits, including prisoners, will continue.
Forced or, rather, violent mobilisation has caused outrage in Ukraine. The facts show that practically there are no people willing to join the military since Ukrainians are not blinded by propaganda and fully understand that they are losing the war. It is evident that Ukrainians are not ready to face certain death and are desperately avoiding conscription, which is why the Kiev regime is using such cruelty during mobilisation – the brutal beatings in the centre of Kiev, the breaking of limbs in Kharkov, and much more, proving, first of all, that people do not want to go fight.
The Guardian recently accompanied Ukrainian military recruiter Pavlo Pimakho on the streets of Kiev’s Sviatoshyn district, and quoted him as saying, “I don’t judge people who avoid the draft but I do feel offended. We stood in long queues desperate to volunteer, and these guys are trying everything to evade serving. All the brave people have already volunteered.”
The mobilisation law has also only deepened the problems with corruption in Ukraine. Oleg Tsvili, a human rights activist and head of the “NGO Defense of Prisoners of Ukraine,” indicates that employees of prison colony administrations extort money from convicts who want to join the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to have their request for mobilisation accepted for consideration. If the prisoner has no money, he is offered to pay after receiving his first salary as a soldier.
Ukraine’s controversial mobilisation law, which will, among other things, allow for the conscription of prisoners, came into force in May, since Kiev faces the challenge of increasing the number of troops amid a new Russian offensive in the direction of Kharkov, the country’s second largest city. As already observed, the prison population is nowhere near sufficient to alleviate Ukraine’s manpower struggle, and neither will be reducing conscription age by two years. For this reason, it can be expected that as the struggle deepens, Kiev will likely once again reduce the age limit and implement other desperate measures, which, once again, will not solve the manpower issue.
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“-i perfectly manage the art of shitting while standing up.”
oh great potus impotentus, which leg do you favor for your ejectile dysfunction?
a hot air balloon filled with helium and a good strong wind over the ukrainian border and into the eu. should do the job. avoid the kiev death list and avoid being abducted by the goon’s
it is a lot smarter sending prisoners to the front than bakers, professors or electricians. prisoners are not crucial to keep the country running. and many of them are much more experienced for the soldier’s job, frighten, maim and kill other people. and if they don’t come back: ukraine can better lose a bunch of criminals than workersneeded to re-build the country.
even a criminal would be able to think what is better : still 5 years in prison or maybe 3 months in a meat grinder resulting in a sure exitus. some may speculate to trick the army and run away , but they forget sure the azovs who secure the front behind the lines and kill everyone who tries to retreat.
propagandalfs here we go again.
the grahamcracker cotton picker will be sponsoring a bill to replenish the working stock in ukraine with african slaves bought on the libyan slave market.
there’s a working plan attached to all of washington’s benevolent democracy building.
i agree. they are a resource.
the problems for both are well educated people too.
well, like bojo’s ex-advisor recently said:
“ukraine is a corrupt mafia shithole and we were nuts to ever set foot in there.” no mystery why he’s an ex-adviser, eh?
enter the corrupt carpetbagger hunter biden, first grifter in the door.
propagandalfs here we go again.
he is one only but mentinws as he again and again.
very much you ignore zelinsky try improve ukriane as written in the article. maybee he can reach the very bad russia level.
if dreams were schemes, you’d be posting here every day.
oh, wait……
i am simple simon, that too hard to understood.
“we stood in long queues desperate to volunteer, and these guys are trying everything to evade serving. all the brave people have already volunteered.”
and all the “brave” people have already died. don’t worry though, they died for a perverted, cocain addicted pretend slav from kiev…
well, there’s brave and then there’s just plain ol’ stupid.
merkel goes to bed every night haunted by the images of hundreds of thousands and counting she sent to their death by not being brave enough to stand up to the us and uk and say “i signed minsk ii and i meant it’. or was she just another eu shyster? there are so many, it’s quite the fad.
and hitler still run the world with his many supporters as well?
we smart…not even fight hitler, just have schnapps and daughters handy to serve.
wait wait wait – according the never wrong cable news and my social media feeds, ukraine is winning! why do they need to recruit more people and convicts? i thought nato helped them train and equip an army of women and lgbt and they have destroyed the evil russians? i mean they only have one tank left in moscow? did the television lie to me? no. this has to be fake news.
nato is like the neighbor that lets his dog run loose to pee on your flower bed and shit on your lawn.
russia is a theif all the way to west of ddr. those theives even blaming moses for taking back.
no there asked for hitler and stalin rule.
ukraine decided in 2014 the best way to rule ukraine is to ethnically cleanse donbass with terrorist bombardments of the civilian population with western approval.
your turn, charlie brown.
those cables must be´made in russia 😩😩😩
my anuz corrupted by gay mulattos
i was born corrupted turd—no i senile filthy nazi
very good and also very dificult to make those changes. too much still are ussr level.
its even worse. its diffucult to make vital reform,whenmoney are used in warfare and simple repair.
russia should send them money as compesation but has none as rubels, kopec so suport themselves and the mighty brics.
i stuck in time warp, have ussr living in brain day and nite. when die, have ussr on tombstone with me so not get lonely.