Ukrainian soldiers take part in a training exercise some 10 kilometres away from the border with Russia and Belarus in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv on Feb. 2.
Kyodo via AP Images
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday signed into law a bill allowing some Ukrainian convicts to serve in the country’s military in exchange for the possibility of parole at the end of their service, a move that highlights Kyiv’s desperate attempts to replenish its forces after more than two years of war.
Parliament passed the bill last week, and political analysts were unsure whether Mr Zelensky would enact it given the sensitivity of the matter. The measure echoes a practice that Russia has widely used to bolster its forces and that Ukraine ridiculed at the beginning of the war.
But Ukraine is now ceding territory to advancing Russian forces, and the Ukrainian military urgently needs to increase the number of troops on the more than 600-mile front line if it is to prevent Russia from breaking through its defences. Ukrainian officials have said the measure could allow up to 20,000 prisoners to be mobilized.
The law comes on top of several recent efforts by the Ukrainian government to shore up its exhausted and depleted troops, including lowering the draft eligibility age to 25 from 27, stepping up border patrols to catch draft dodgers and suspending consular services for military-age men living abroad. Mr Zelensky also enacted a law on Friday that increases fines for evading the draft.
Ukraine’s shortage of soldiers has been particularly evident since Russia launched a new offensive push in the country’s northeast last week. The assaults have left the Ukrainian military scrambling to divert troops from other areas of the front and draw from their meagre personnel reserves.
Ukrainian officials say they have now stabilized the situation in the northeast, but the rush of additional troops to the area has risked weakening other parts of the front where Russia is also on the attack, military experts say.
Russia’s gains on the battlefield over the past year have largely resulted from its superior troop numbers. Moscow has sent wave after wave of soldiers in bloody assaults, even if it means sustaining huge numbers of casualties, to capture towns and cities such as Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in the east.
As part of this strategy, the Kremlin has committed tens of thousands of convicts to the fighting, a controversial practice that Ukraine criticized in the first half of the war. But now, Ukraine is also looking to recruit prisoners.
Unlike in Russia, the possibility of serving will not be extended to people who have been convicted of premeditated murder, rape or other serious offences. Lawmakers said involuntary manslaughter convictions could be considered.
Several Ukrainians on Friday expressed support for the measure, saying it would help Ukraine to face up to Russia’s large army.
“As one military officer said, a small Soviet army cannot defeat a large Soviet army,” Pavlo Litovkin, a 31-year-old resident of Kyiv, said. But he added that Ukraine should not imitate “Russia’s methods of warfare” by throwing waves of convicts into gruelling battles that many soldiers have described as a “meat grinder.”
Prisoners serving under the new law would be integrated into special units for the duration of martial law, meaning that they would not be demobilized until the end of the war. Lawmakers also said that prisoners eligible for service must have no more than three years of their sentence left to serve. The decision to mobilize and parole a prisoner will be made by a court and will require the prisoner’s willingness to join the army.
Olena Vysotska, Ukraine’s deputy justice minister, told a Ukrainian news outlet on Friday that in a survey of Ukrainian convicts conducted by the ministry in April, 4,500 expressed a desire to serve in the army in exchange for the possibility of parole.
Still, the law could exacerbate already heightened tensions around the issue of mobilization in Ukraine. Criticism has been growing over the harsh tactics sometimes used to conscript people and corruption issues in recruitment centres.
Maria Karpova, another resident of Kyiv, said she found it “strange that criminals are offered mobilization based on their willingness, while ordinary people who are reluctant to go there are mobilized against their will.”
Source: NYT
烏克蘭總統簽署法律允許囚犯為國家而戰
自從俄羅斯上週在該國東北部發動新的攻勢以來，烏克蘭的士兵短缺問題尤其明顯。 這些攻擊事件導致烏克蘭軍方爭先恐後地從前線其他地區轉移部隊，並從其微薄的人員儲備中抽調。
烏克蘭官員表示，他們現在已經穩定了東北部的局勢，但軍事專家表示，向該地區增派部隊可能會削弱前線其他地區的力量，俄羅斯也在攻擊這些地區。
俄羅斯過去一年在戰場上的進展很大程度上得益於其兵力優勢。 莫斯科派出了一波又一波的士兵進行血腥襲擊，即使這意味著造成大量傷亡，也要佔領東部的巴克穆特、阿夫季夫卡和馬林卡等城鎮。
作為這項策略的一部分，克里姆林宮將數萬名囚犯投入戰鬥，烏克蘭在戰爭上半場批評了這項有爭議的做法。 但現在，烏克蘭也在尋求招募囚犯。
與俄羅斯不同，服刑的可能性不會擴大到被判犯有預謀謀殺、強姦或其他嚴重罪行的人。 立法者表示，可以考慮對非自願過失殺人罪定罪。
週五，一些烏克蘭人表示支持這項舉措，稱這將有助於烏克蘭對抗俄羅斯的龐大軍隊。
「正如一位軍官所說，一支小型的蘇聯軍隊無法擊敗一支龐大的蘇聯軍隊，」31 歲的基輔居民帕夫洛·利托夫金 (Pavlo Litovkin) 說。 但他補充說，烏克蘭不應效仿“俄羅斯的戰爭方法”，將大批囚犯投入艱苦的戰鬥，許多士兵將其形容為“絞肉機”。
根據新法律服刑的囚犯將在戒嚴期間被編入特種部隊，這意味著他們在戰爭結束前不會被解除武裝。 立法者也表示，符合服刑條件的囚犯的刑期不得超過三年。 動員和假釋囚犯的決定將由法院做出，並且需要囚犯願意參軍。
烏克蘭司法部副部長奧萊娜·維索茨卡(Olena Vysotska) 週五對一家烏克蘭新聞媒體表示，該部4 月份對烏克蘭囚犯進行的一項調查顯示，有4,500 人表示希望參軍，以換取假釋的可能性。
儘管如此，該法律可能會加劇圍繞烏克蘭動員問題已經加劇的緊張局勢。 人們對有時用於徵兵的嚴厲手段以及徵兵中心的腐敗問題的批評越來越多。
基輔的另一位居民瑪麗亞·卡爾波娃(Maria Karpova)表示，她覺得「奇怪的是，罪犯是根據自己的意願而被動員起來的，kilometres人卻是在違背自己意願的情況下被動員起來的。
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