Ukraine’s government has rowed back on an announcement Ukrainians living overseas would be recruited to fight against Russia.
On Thursday, the country’s Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, told German media outlet Die Welt that they would potentially sanction those who refused to join up.
However, shortly after the story was released, the Ministry’s press officer, Illarion Pavliuk, told the Ukrainian media outlet Babel that Umerov’s comments had been taken out of context.
Pavliuk claimed the Defence Minister was simply speaking generally about how important it is for Ukrainians – including those living abroad – to join the army.
He also clarified that there is not currently any active discussion on the recruitment of Ukrainians from abroad.
The confusion follows an announcement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week that the country plans to mobilise some 450,000 to 500,000 new soldiers.
He instructed Rustem Umerov as well as Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi back in November to formulate a new procedure for getting such a significant number of people to join the army.
It comes at a time when Zelenskyy is keen to speed up the rotation and demobilisation of troops, many of whom have been fighting for almost two years.
In November, the BBC reported that up to 650,000 Ukrainian men of military age have left for elsewhere in Europe since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
That’s despite the fact that men aged 18-60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine, barring special circumstances, under martial law.
There are questions about where the much-needed new soldiers will come from, with Zelenskyy calling mobilisation a “sensitive issue.”
There is also a lack of clarity around the financial and political framework conditions of any recruitment drive.
In recent months, Ukraine has seen the Russian army gaining ground in their offensive in the southeast of the country.
“Since October 10, when the enemy became more active, in some places they have advanced by one and a half to two kilometres,” military spokesperson Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun told Ukrainian television on Wednesday.
The focus of Moscow’s renewed push is the industrial city of Avdiivka, close to the Russian-controlled Donbas capital Donetsk.
Shtupun admitted that the Russian army is superior to that of the Ukrainians in terms of manpower.
Experts, including the Institute for War Studies, say that Russia’s ability to deploy a large number of soldiers as well as its superior tank technology makes the battle even harder for Ukraine and its fighters.
