A uniform decision should be made regarding the return of Ukrainians of military age to their home countries, Mikhail Podoliak said.
EU member states must make a joint decision on repatriating Ukrainian refugees living there and avoiding kyiv’s military conscription, President Vladimir Zelensky’s top adviser Mikhail Podoliak said.
The senior official made the remarks to Ukrainian media on Thursday. kyiv has repeatedly raised the conscription issue in recent weeks as it struggles with a labor shortage amid the conflict with Russia.
“We absolutely need a uniform European decision on this issue. It seems strange that (Ukraine) is bleeding, while young people managed to leave and do not support their country. » » said Podoliak.
His remarks echo the position expressed earlier by one of kyiv’s main donors, Poland. Earlier this week, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz also said the 27-state bloc should make a joint decision on the issue.
“It is very important, and we talked about it, that these are solutions at the European level, and I know that discussions are underway between Ukraine and Brussels, between kyiv and Brussels on this subject,” he said. he added. the minister said at a press conference on Tuesday. Solutions at European level “will guarantee the full effectiveness of this action”, he added.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw was ready to cooperate with kyiv if it formally requested help in its efforts to recruit more military personnel.
However, there does not appear to be a uniform position on the issue within Poland itself, as Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the idea of sending refugees eligible for conscription back to Ukraine was “ethically ambiguous”.
According to the EU agency Eurostat, around 4.3 million Ukrainians currently live in the EU, of which at least 860,000 are men of military age. Refugees have recently come under increasing pressure from their home countries, with the Foreign Ministry in kyiv even suspending consular services as part of a sweeping mobilization reform, set to take effect this month -this.
The country’s controversial new mobilization bill lowers the conscription age from 27 to 25, significantly expands the powers of enlisting officers and introduces various restrictions for draft dodgers. It was signed by Zelensky in April after being passed by the country’s parliament following months of deliberations.
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