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New round of mobilization may stir new protests in Ukraine, expert says

According to him, people in western and central parts of Ukraine are particularly dissatisfied with the ongoing mobilization campaign

KIEV, January 16 /TASS/. A new round of mobilization in Ukraine is taking place to the accompaniment of the authorities’ bravura statements, on the one hand. On the other hand, the situation in various parts of Ukraine is showing that people’s attitude to the move differs from region to region, Kost Bondarenko, director of the Ukrainian Policy Institute, told a news conference on Friday.

According to him, people in western and central parts of Ukraine are particularly dissatisfied with the ongoing mobilization campaign.

“Military commissars report that male population in entire villages may disappear in the course of one night: they either go abroad in search of work or simply vanish into nowhere. It shows that people’s attitude to war is no longer univocal. It is exactly the war theme that may be a catalyst to new protest moods in Ukraine,” Bondarenko said noting that certainty of an easy victory and patriotic moods were gradually subsiding.

Iskander Khisamov, director of the Expert Council analytical center, agreed with Bondarenko. “The population of many regions is being vigorously opposed to the new mobilization campaign. Therefore, we should expect the strengthening of authoritarian trends,” Khisamov said commenting on how the Ukrainian authorities were likely to react to these new public moods.

On January 16, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a presidential decree on partial mobilization in 2015 that will be carried out in three rounds. The first fifty thousand people will be drafted into the army on January 20. The second and third rounds are planned for April and June.

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