A plan to draft more Ukrainian men into the army has been sitting on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s desk since June. The wartime leader so far has defied pressure from the military to sign it.
Instead, Zelenskyy last week asked his government and top brass for a more comprehensive package, one better tailored to a nation exhausted by war and preparing for another winter of fighting. It again put off the blueprint, approved by Ukraine’s parliament, to lower the draft age during war for men with no military experience from 27 to 25.
"The law should have taken effect — the parliament fully backed it,” Roman Kostenko, a lawmaker on the parliamentary defense committee, said in an interview. "Conscription is taking place with difficulty now.”