Ukraine’s parliament scraps demobilization plans in bid to boost military

(CNN) — Ukraine’s parliament has scrapped plans to give soldiers who have spent prolonged periods fighting on the frontlines the chance to return home on rotation, after passing a draft law seeking to boost the number of soldiers in its military.

Ukrainian lawmakers have for months debated whether to allow the longest-serving of Ukraine’s soldiers the chance to return home, or whether Russia’s unrelenting aggression means they cannot afford to allow exhausted soldiers to rest – an invidious dilemma that has sparked public outcry.

Soldiers serving for more than 36 months were originally slated to be allowed to demobilize and return home, but the provision was removed from a draft law following an intervention by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, according to Ukrainian lawmakers.

The draft law passed Thursday with 283 votes in favor, as part of a raft of measures aimed at providing a desperately needed boost for Ukraine’s military. The law received 4,269 amendments over months of debate – a measure of how politically difficult crafting the legislation has been.

The law also said the government must submit new legislation to improve the “rotation of military personnel under martial law,” meaning the issue of demobilization is likely to remain active.

Dozens of wives and relatives of servicemen gathered outside Ukraine’s parliament Thursday to protest the passing of the draft law, demanding that demobilization deadlines be included.

Anastasia Bulba, whose husband Vitalii volunteered to join the military immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, told CNN that Ukraine’s soldiers “have been left without terms of service and with no idea when they will be able to return to their families.”

“The country’s defenders, on whom the independence of the entire country rests, have been deceived,” she said.

“We all understand that mobilization has failed, without which there is no demobilization. And this is the fault of the authorities, not our husbands,” she added.

The issue of mobilization has bedeviled Ukrainian lawmakers for months, as the needs of its military clash with political constraints.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former commander of Ukraine’s military, wrote in a CNN op-ed in February that Ukraine “must acknowledge the significant advantage enjoyed by the enemy in mobilizing human resources and how that compares with the inability of state institutions in Ukraine to improve the manpower levels of our armed forces without the use of unpopular measures.”

Zaluzhnyi reportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to bolster Ukraine’s military with 500,000 new troops. Although Zaluzhnyi denied he had specifically requested that number, it became lodged in public debate.

Zelensky took issue with the figure publicly, telling journalists at a press conference, “This is a very serious number. It is a question about people, about justice, about defense capabilities. It is also a financial question.” Zaluzhnyi was then dismissed in February.

Zelensky later told CNN that, while mobilizing more troops was a priority, “it is a question of how fair recruitment should be.”

“The most important issue is rotation of the people who are very tired at the front line… Mobilization depends on how many you have at the front, how many reserves you have,” he said.

Zelensky last week signed a law that will lower Ukraine’s minimum conscription age from 27 to 25. The Ukrainian parliament passed the measure in May 2023 but the president did not sign it into law until nearly a year later.

It is not clear when the draft law passed Thursday will receive presidential approval.

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