The Ukrainians MPs today began a second reading of the controversial conscription bill, which has sparked a popular outcry because a key article dealing with the demobilization of long-term combatants was removed.

The recruitment of new recruits has fueled debate for more than a year as the military faces shortages of personnel and ammunition in its multi-front war against to the Russian invaders.

A bill to ease recruitment was passed by Ukraine’s parliament at first reading in February after a first version prepared by the government last year failed, but this second version has since been heavily amended.

According to several MPs, one of the key articles of this text has been removed: the demobilization of soldiers who have been fighting for more than 36 months, a long-awaited measure, however, in a country exhausted by more than two years of Russian invasion.

“Following the appeal of the army chief and the defense minister (…), the article on dismissal from the army after 36 months has been removed,” she explained on Facebook. Irina Frizmember of the defense committee of the parliament.

Several financial incentives to soldiers were also eliminated, Freeze said.

Instead, the government will be tasked with drafting another bill to “improve the mechanisms for rotation of military personnel.”

MPs also today voted in first reading on a bill that makes it possible for prisoners to be drafted. “We must give convicts the opportunity to fight,” bill co-sponsor Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Telegram, pledging that those convicted of murder or rape would not be drafted.

The decision to remove the demobilization article immediately sparked controversy, especially since the existing conscription system is seen by many Ukrainians as unfair, inefficient and often corrupt.

THE Sergey Gnezdilova civil rights activist now serving in the military, denounced via Facebook a “brutal coup” that caught the soldiers by surprise.

THE Yuri Gudimenkoa soldier and politician, emphasized that the bill now includes “neither serious penalties for cheaters, nor serious advantages for young conscripts.”

“Therefore, this will not have the expected effect – the influx of new fighters,” he wrote on Facebook.

For the press representative of the Ministry of Defence Dmytro Lazutkinwho acknowledged that the troops are “exhausted”, stressed that the decision was deemed necessary in order not to weaken the armed forces defending against Russian attacks on all fronts.

He said the government must table a new bill on rotating military forces within eight months.

Soldiers interviewed by AFP said they were “shocked”.

“It’s a disaster. It’s just brutal. What’s on their mind?” answered 46-year-old Oleksandr, who serves in his eastern district Donetsk. “Someone who knows when he will be discharged will have a different attitude towards the service. If we are like slaves, then it will not lead to anything good,” he predicted.

Yevgen, a 39-year-old paratrooper also based in the Donetsk region, has been in the army for a year and a half. He has not seen his wife for two years, who went abroad, and he only had 10 days off last year, which he spent to undergo treatment. “Soldiers who fight for a long time are very tired,” he emphasizes. “99% of men want to rest, take a break, live a normal life. Live at home.”

Declaring himself “outraged”, Yevgen explains that “many” soldiers are at risk of divorce because they cannot see their wives. “There are soldiers who haven’t come home for a year. It’s very unfair.”

In early April, President Volodymyr Zelensky had already approved lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 in order to widen the pool of potential recruits.

He said in December 2023 that his army had proposed to recruit up to 500,000 more people, a number that has since been revised downwards by the new chief of the armed forces, Oleksandr Sirsky.