Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj says he sees no need to draft the originally planned 500,000 soldiers to fight Russia’s war of aggression. “We don’t need half a million,” said the head of state at a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Kiev.
According to Zelensky, there are enough soldiers who can be sent to the front. Army chief Olexander Syrskyj had previously made a similar statement, citing an inventory. Neither Zelenskyj nor Syrskyj provided specific information about personnel requirements.
In December, Zelenskyj, referring to the military, spoke of a need for up to half a million soldiers to be mobilized. However, so far only men of reservist age aged 27 and over have been drafted. Zelensky has now signed a law that allows reservists aged 25 and over to be called up for military service. Theoretically, a good 400,000 additional men can be mobilized.
At the same time, Zelensky claimed that Russia would draft 300,000 additional soldiers on June 1st. There is currently no evidence of this in Russia, where the district military replacement offices will be busy drafting 150,000 soldiers into basic military service until mid-July. These soldiers should not be sent to the front. Moscow also emphasizes that there are enough volunteers who have signed up for military service – 100,000 since the beginning of the year alone.
Zelensky and Stubb also signed a 10-year security agreement between Ukraine and Finland. Helsinki promised Kiev further financial aid, support in training soldiers, clearing mines and rebuilding the destroyed parts of the country. Ukraine had previously signed similar agreements with Great Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion with Western help for over two years.
