Ukraine will try to attract young Ukrainian men abroad to return home to do military service. According to reports, the Ukrainian armed forces currently need more soldiers on the front lines.
“Even if you live abroad, you are not relieved of your duties to the motherland,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday.
Ukraine has temporarily suspended consular services for Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 until May 18.
Therefore, when living abroad, they have no opportunity to renew their passport or obtain other official documents such as marriage certificates. The only exception is men who want to return to Ukraine.
“This is what it looks like now: a man of military age has gone abroad, shown his home country that he doesn’t care if it survives, then he comes and demands services from this state. “That’s not how it works,” writes Foreign Minister Kuleba on X.
In April, Ukraine tightened penalties for draft evaders. The mobilization age was also reduced by two years to 25 years. Both measures are part of Ukraine’s plans to increase the number of its soldiers.
According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, around a fifth of the 4.3 million Ukrainians registered in the EU are men of military age.
The USA and Great Britain are preparing aid packages
Although Ukraine lacks soldiers, the country has been promised material support from both the US and Britain.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday that the country would prepare its largest-ever aid package for Ukraine worth 500 million pounds, around 580 million euros.
The U.S. is preparing a smaller aid package worth $1 billion for Ukraine, reports Reuters, which spoke to two anonymous U.S. officials.
The package included anti-aircraft weapons, military vehicles, artillery ammunition and anti-tank weapons, the officials said. Equipment must be ready for immediate use on the battlefield.
The amount comes from a larger US aid package for Ukraine that was approved in the US over the weekend. This package has a total value of around $61 billion.
Sources: STT, Reuters, AFP
