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Kyiv submits draft Bill to boost mobilisation; Turkey moves closer to approving Sweden’s Nato bid

Kyiv submits draft Bill to boost mobilisation; Turkey moves closer to approving Sweden’s Nato bid
Bloomberg
By Bloomberg
26 Dec 2023
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The Ukrainian Cabinet submitted a draft law to Parliament that lays out a new mobilisation plan for the army, in the latest attempt to resolve disagreements between the political and military leadership over conscription as Russia’s invasion enters its 23rd month.

Turkey moved closer to approving Sweden’s long-awaited accession to Nato with a key parliamentary committee backing the bid, paving the way for a vote by the full assembly in Ankara as early as this week.

Russia said a warship at the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia had been damaged in a Ukrainian missile strike that targeted a fleet used to launch attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine seeks to end deadlock over conscription with new law


The Ukrainian Cabinet submitted a draft law to Parliament that lays out a new mobilisation plan for the army, in the latest attempt to resolve disagreements between the political and military leadership over conscription as Russia’s invasion enters its 23rd month.

The Bill envisages lowering the draft age during wartime for men with no military experience to 25 from 27, according to Parliament’s website. It also limits the grounds for delaying the enlistment and proposes introducing “basic military training” for citizens under 25. 

Replenishing the army’s depleted ranks is high on Ukraine’s agenda as its forces confront Russian troops for the second winter while facing a looming shortage of ammunition, with more than $110-billion in financial aid ensnared in political infighting in Washington and Brussels. 

Ukraine’s counteroffensive launched in June yielded only small gains, and Russian troops are now trying to press forward in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has been considering but hasn’t signed another conscription plan that’s been on his desk since June and also proposed a reduction in the draft age to 25.

While Zelensky previously indicated that Ukraine’s military leaders had asked to mobilise up to 500,000 people, the president said on 19 December he was awaiting a comprehensive package that includes a blueprint for troop rotations and leaves. General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s military chief, earlier this month criticised the pace of conscription as too slow. 

In televised remarks on Tuesday, Zaluzhnyi denied recommending that Ukraine draft as many as 500,000 additional servicemen. The military command has come up with a “number that includes compensation of losses, the formation of new units and the replacement of potential losses next year,” he said. “But I cannot tell you what it is — it’s a military secret.”

Read more: Zelensky faces manpower dilemma in Ukraine’s stalled offensive

The urgency is growing for Ukraine as the momentum on the battlefield changes and it stares down an adversary whose forces already far outnumber Ukraine’s troops.

What’s more, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree expanding his country’s armed services and ordered his government to put in place a digital registration system that will allow authorities to more easily track and draft into the army military-age citizens as early as next year. 

Ukrainian legislators plan to debate the bill on 10 January, LB.ua online newspaper reported, citing people on the parliamentary national security and defence committee. The Cabinet additionally submitted legislation that would stiffen the punishment for draft dodgers.

Zelenskiy hasn’t yet commented on the new draft law, which also proposes that servicemen would be able to retire after being deployed for 36 months of combat. 

Turkey moves closer to approving Sweden’s Nato bid


Turkey moved closer to approving Sweden’s long-awaited accession to Nato with a key parliamentary committee backing the bid, paving the way for a vote by the full assembly in Ankara as early as this week.

Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Committee endorsed Sweden’s entry to the military alliance, clearing one of the final hurdles for Stockholm. Parliament is widely expected to follow suit when it votes, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signalling he’s in favour and his ruling AK party and its allies having a comfortable majority in the chamber.

Sweden would help bolster the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) and strengthen Europe’s defences following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. US President Joe Biden and European leaders have pushed Erdoğan to approve the country’s inclusion. Turkey is the last hold-out in the bloc along with Hungary.

“Sweden has made amendments in its Constitution and laws that will allow it to be more effective in its counter-terrorism efforts and prevent terror activities,” said Fuat Oktay, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “Sweden has removed open and veiled embargoes against our country,” he said during the discussions.

The Turkish committee’s decision follows a call between Biden and Erdoğan earlier this month in which they discussed Sweden as well as Turkey’s possible purchase of 40 new F-16 fighter jets from the US. The White House has made Sweden’s accession a prerequisite for the sale of the warplanes to Turkey, while Erdoğan also said the two issues should be linked.  

Russia says Ukraine’s strike damaged warship in Crimean port


Russia said a warship at the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia had been damaged in a Ukrainian missile strike that targeted a fleet used to launch attacks on Ukrainian cities.

The Russian Defence Ministry didn’t specify the extent of damage to the landing ship Novocherkassk, according to the state RIA Novosti news service. One person was killed and two wounded in Feodosia, the Russia-installed Crimea governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. 

Ukraine is challenging Russia’s naval superiority in the region despite lacking warships of its own by relying on missiles and unmanned maritime drones. Ukraine’s air defence said on Telegram it attacked the Novocherkassk with cruise missiles at around 2.30am local time.

Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been the target of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks for months. 

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said the country’s air defence shot down 13 of 19 Shahed-type drones that were launched by Russia overnight from Crimea and its territory on the eastern shore of the Sea of Azov. 

The attacks struck an infrastructure facility, causing a fire near Odesa, and damaged a storage building in the southern Mykolayiv region.

Bank of Russia governor says she is bracing for more sanctions


Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, who helped the Kremlin absorb the blow from sweeping sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, said she was preparing for a strengthening of penalties aimed at the country’s economy.

The restructuring of Russia’s economy was proceeding “quite quickly” as businesses adapted to the sanctions, Nabiullina said in an interview with RBC news published on Monday. There was a temptation to think “we are, as they say, knee-deep in the sea” after weathering the initial storm, though “we must be prepared for increased sanctions pressure”, she said. DM

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