(18 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 17 May 2024
1. Ukrainian servicemen recruits for 3rd Assault Brigade standing before start of training
2. Various of recruits taking on obstacle course
3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Call sign “Rohas”, Ukrainian military 3rd Assault Brigade recruit:
“The hostages of the situation are not those who are afraid of being mobilized, but those (soldiers) who are holding positions (in a team) of three when there should be 10 (men). These guys are hostages of the situation and they should be relieved, so we have gathered here and are preparing for this.”
4. Instructor speaking to recruits
5. Recruits doing pushups
6. Recruits crawling
7. Recruit standing
STORYLINE:
A divisive mobilization law in Ukraine came into force on Saturday, as Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could close in on Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The legislation, which was watered down from its original draft, will make it easier to identify every conscript in the country.
It also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car, that some analysts say Ukraine cannot afford.
Lawmakers dragged their feet for months and only passed the law in mid-April, a week after Ukraine lowered the age for men who can be drafted from 27 to 25.
The measures reflect the growing strain that more than two years of war with Russia has had on Ukraine’s forces, who are trying to hold the front lines in fighting that has sapped the country’s ranks and stores of weapons and ammunition.
At the training centre for recruits into the 3rd Assault Brigade, volunteers who chose to sign up were being put through their paces.
One serviceman, with the call name "Rojas", says the real "hostages" of the situation are not the conscripts, but the veterans on the frontline overdue to be relieved.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also signed two other laws Friday, allowing prisoners to join the army and increasing fines for draft dodgers fivefold.
Russia enlisted its prisoners early on in the war, and personnel shortages compelled Ukraine to adopt the new measures.
Russian troops, meanwhile, are pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and put further pressure on Kyiv’s overstretched military.
After weeks of probing, Moscow launched the new push knowing that Ukraine suffered personnel shortages and that its forces have been spread thin in the northeast.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a visit to China that the Russian push aims to create “a buffer zone” rather than capturing Kharkiv, the local capital and Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Still, Moscow’s forces have pummeled Kharkiv with strikes in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure and prompting angry accusations from Zelenskyy that the Russian leadership sought to reduce the city to rubble.
On Friday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that Russian-guided bombs killed at least three residents and injured 28 others that day.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have died or suffered injuries in the more than 27 months of fighting.
The U.S. last week announced a new $400 million package of military aid for Ukraine, and President Joe Biden has promised that he would rush badly needed weaponry to the country to help it stave off Russian advances.
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