TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, that the military had proposed mobilizing 450,000-500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces in what would mark a dramatic escalation of Kyiv’s war with Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said at a year-end press conference that this was a “very sensitive” issue that the military and government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament.
Zelensky said he would like to hear more arguments in favor of mobilizing additional people before backing the move.
“These are very serious numbers,” he said.
Ukraine has been at war with Russian forces since February 2022. Both sides consider their casualty figures a state secret, but US officials estimate hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and injured.
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Amount Ukrainian team unknown, but Ukraine has said that they have about 1 million people armed. Russia has expanded its forces during the war and said on Tuesday it planned to increase its forces to 1.5 million military members.
“I said that I need more arguments to support this step. Because first of all, this is a societal problem, secondly, this is a justice problem, this is a defense capability problem, and this is a financial problem,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine, which initially had tens of thousands of volunteer fighters lining up to defend their country from Russian invasionis now trying to recruit more soldiers to replace those currently on the front lines.
There have been closed discussions for weeks about how to improve the design process. Some Ukrainians reacted angrily to videos on social media showing military conscripts handing out summonses at gyms and resorts.
Zelensky said an additional 500 billion hryvnia ($13.5 billion) was needed to support the army mobilization proposal and he wanted more details on how those troops would be used against Russia.
There was tension between Zelensky and the military commander.
This week, army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi criticized Zelensky’s decision to fire the head of the regional conscription office amid a crackdown on corruption this summer.
REUTERS
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