MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. No matter what, Kiev will recruit the necessary number of men to replenish the army through mobilization and the recruitment of volunteers, Defense Ministry spokesman Illarion Pavlyuk has said.

"We will still get the number of people that we need," the Ukrainian media resource New Voice quotes him as saying.

Pavlyuk noted that this target would be achieved through mobilization and the recruitment of volunteers.

"We offer them to join the army voluntarily, without waiting for mobilization or summons. We offer them a choice of specialties. But this cannot mean that only those who want to serve will serve, and that now only non-combat specialties can be chosen, despite the fact that there is indeed a great need for various specialties in the army," he said.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told a news conference on December 19 that the military had suggested mobilizing an additional 450,000-500,000 men, as well as women. He speculated that such mobilization would cost the strapped Ukrainian budget an extra $13.4 bln. In February 2022, Ukraine announced a general mobilization and has repeatedly extended it since. The authorities have been doing everything possible to prevent men of conscription age from dodging the draft. In particular, potential conscripts are banned from traveling abroad. Conscription orders are issued at public administration offices on the streets and many other sites where large numbers of people congregate. Ukrainian media outlets report that many men literally avoid stepping outside their homes for months on end to avoid being forcibly mobilized by mobile conscription squads and sent to the war zone.

Ukraine’s aggressive mobilization campaign has already sparked numerous scandals. The media regularly publish stories of military mobilization officers using force against citizens when handing out conscription orders, or conscripting people unfit for service for health reasons, as well as many instances of lawmakers and civil servants abusing their authority to surreptitiously secrete their conscription age sons to locations abroad, out of reach of Kiev’s mobilization squads. On August 23, Zelensky said that the military had asked him to step up mobilization activities.