Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Dmytro Lazutkin, who acknowledged that the troops are exhausted, said the decision was deemed necessary in order not to weaken the armed forces defending against Russian attacks on all fronts.
He said the government must table a new bill on rotating military forces within eight months.
“They want to to live a normal life»
Soldiers interviewed by AFP said they were shocked.
“It’s a disaster. It’s just brutal. What’s on their minds?’ replied Oleksandr, 46, who serves in the eastern region of Donetsk. “Someone who knows when they will be discharged will have a different attitude towards service. If we are like slaves, then this will not lead to anything good,” he predicted.
Yevgen, a 39-year-old paratrooper also based in the Donetsk region, has been in the army for a year and a half. He has not seen his wife for two years, who went abroad, and he only had 10 days off last year, which he spent to undergo treatment.
“Soldiers who fight for a long time are very tired,” he emphasizes. “99% of men want to rest, take a break, live a normal life. To live at home.”
Expressing exasperation, Yevgen explains that many soldiers are at risk of divorce because they cannot see their wives. “There are soldiers who have not returned home for a year. It is so unfair”.
In early April, President Volodymyr Zelensky had already approved lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 in order to widen the pool of potential recruits.
He said in December 2023 that his army had proposed to recruit up to 500,000 more people, a number that has since been revised downwards by the new chief of the armed forces, Oleksandr Sirsky.
Source: RES-MPE
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