Ukraine commences three-stage 2015 military draft

Ukraine has commenced a three-stage 2015 military draft with hopes of enlisting 100,000 people as Ukrainian military chief prepares to take part in NATO Military Committee.

The initial mobilization phase, which started on Tuesday and will last for three months, targets 50,000 new soldiers, RT reported.

The second and third stages are set for April and June.

The draft’s goal is to replace front line soldiers, recruited last year, in eastern Ukraine.

Reserve servicemen aged between 25 and 60 are eligible for the draft.

Under a law passed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday, women are also subject to the latest draft.

Joint Staff spokesman Vladimir Talalay has warned that people who avoid the draft could face jail time of up to five years.

Talalay’s warning has not deterred Ukrainians from expressing anger at Kiev’s latest draft campaign.

Many people say that such a draft is only possible if martial law is imposed in the country. 

“I imagine how many mothers and wives are now thinking of where to hide their sons and husbands,” said a Ukrainian woman on Facebook. “Mobilization or no mobilization – taking men older than 50 is not funny.”

Ukrainian armed forces chief to take part in NATO Military Committee

"It is planned that a delegation of the Ukrainian armed forces led by Chief of Staff and Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Viktor Muzhenko will take part in events at the level of chiefs of staff of the alliance member states and partners at the NATO headquarters on January 21-22," Ukrainian General Staff spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said on Tuesday.

He added that during the Brussels meeting the “current military-political situation in Ukraine and around its borders, plans to reform the Ukrainian armed forces, and principal trends and prospects of military cooperation between the Ukrainian armed forces and NATO” will be discussed.

Muzhenko was initially set to travel to Brussels on Tuesday but was forced to reschedule, because he was “leading an operation”.

The Military Committee of NATO is a military authority and after the North Atlantic Council is the Western alliances’ oldest permanent body.

The committee acts as the main source of military advice to NATO’s civilian decision-making bodies – the North Atlantic Council and the Nuclear Planning Group.

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence protests there in mid-April 2014.

The United Nations says around 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

The violence rages on despite a ceasefire agreement reached between the two sides last September.   

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