A uniform decision needs to be made on sending military-aged Ukrainian men in the EU back home, Mikhail Podoliak has said
FILE PHOTO. Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. © AFP / Sergei Supinsky
EU member states need to make a joint decision on repatriating the Ukrainian refugees living there who are dodging Kiev’s military draft, president Vladimir Zelensky’s most senior adviser, Mikhail Podoliak, has said.
The top official made the remarks to Ukrainian media on Thursday. Kiev has repeatedly raised the conscription-linked issue in recent weeks, as it struggles with manpower shortages amid its conflict with Russia.
“We definitely need a uniform European decision on this issue. It looks odd that [Ukraine] is bleeding, while young people have managed to leave and do not support their country,” Podoliak said.
His remarks echoed the stance earlier voiced by one of Kiev’s key backers, Poland. Earlier this week, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz also said the 27-state bloc should produce a joint decision on the matter.
“It is very important, and we talked about it, that these are solutions at the European level, and I know that talks between Ukraine and Brussels, between Kiev and Brussels are ongoing on this topic,” the minister said during a press conference on Tuesday. Solutions at European level “will ensure full effectiveness of this action,” he added.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw was ready to cooperate with Kiev should it formally ask for help with its efforts to conscript more service personnel.
However, there appears to be no uniform position on the matter within Poland itself, as Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the idea of sending draft-eligible refugees back to Ukraine was “ethically ambiguous.”
An estimated 4.3 million Ukrainians currently live in the EU, of whom at least 860,000 are draft-age men, according to the EU’s Eurostat agency. The refugees have seen mounting pressure from their home country as of late, with the foreign ministry in Kiev even suspending consular services amid radical reform of mobilization, expected to enter into force this month.
The country’s new and controversial mobilization bill lowers the conscription age from 27 to 25, greatly expands the powers of enlistment officers and introduces assorted restrictions for draft dodgers. It was signed by Zelensky in April after it was passed by the country’s parliament following months of deliberation.
