Members of an organized group from Odesa Oblast have been charged with smuggling draft dodgers abroad, with a potential sentence of up to nine years of imprisonment, the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) reported on Telegram on Jan. 30.
KYIV, Ukraine — When Russian troops and tanks invaded Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainians rushed to serve in the army in a surge of patriotic fervor. The influx of fighters who dutifully answered their draft notices or enlisted as volunteers helped to repel Russia’s initial assault and thwart the Kremlin’s plans to decapitate the Ukrainian government. But after nearly two years of bloody fighting, and with Ukraine once again in need of fresh troops to fend off a new Russian
After an initial outpouring of patriotism in the months after Russia's invasion began, the realities of the battlefield and mobilisation have largely set in among Ukraine's population.- Lowering the age -
The patriotic impetus of the early months, when Ukrainians went en masse to the front voluntarily, is no longer there.