LONDON, March 13. /TASS/. Kiev is going to replace more than 300,000 troops, currently on the battlefield with Russia, in its latest mobilization effort, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry told the Financial Times.

According to the British newspaper, Ukraine’s armed forces aim to replace 330,000 soldiers and officers, involved in the military conflict with Russia. As soon as a law envisaging new rules of mobilization is adopted, the Ukrainian authorities will be looking to recruit up to 500,000 people. Upon the rotation, the remaining recruits would be used to replace casualties or meet other army needs, "depending on the battlefield situation," the FT said, citing Ukraine’s defense agency.

Since February 2022, Ukraine has drafted thousands to the front and repeatedly extended a general mobilization. In December 2023, a bill tightening mobilization rules was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, and lawmakers passed the draft law in the first reading on February 7. More than 4,000 amendments were made by the second reading. A relevant committee is currently working on the final wording of the text to be put to a parliamentary vote. A member of the parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, Fyodor Venislavsky, said that legislators may adopt the initiative no earlier than April. According to him, after the new law comes into effect, the number of fresh recruits will be well below 500,000 people that the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, had sought to mobilize.