MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces’ commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, has suggested at a meeting in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), which considered a bill on new military call-up requirements, that lawmakers should arrive at the front unless the army is replenished, the Ukrainian newspaper New Voice reported.

"He (Zaluzhny - TASS) also said, ‘I need people. <...> Who can I have for fighting? Or should I ask the world for people there? Or you go fight if you do not provide [army replenishment]," the newspaper said citing a source, who attended the meeting.

The waves of mobilization announced in Ukraine since February 2022 have already led to numerous scandals and exacerbated societal tensions. In late November 2023, Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada National Security and Defense Committee, said that the call-up campaign had failed. In his opinion, the army replenishment is even a more pressing issue than the shortage of shells.

Last December, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that the Ukrainian military command had requested that 500,000 more people be drafted into the armed forces. Under these circumstances, a bill on new mobilization rules was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, which proposes to tighten measures against draft evaders and to narrow down the list of groups ineligible for service, allowing drafting even disabled people.