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  • German minister to propose return of military service registration

    German minister to propose return of military service registration

    German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is set to propose needing boys to sign up for prospective military service, according to dpa’s sources, in a relocation that comes 13 years after Germany efficiently eliminated nationwide conscription.

    The action would not restore conscription. However boys would need to supply info in a survey about their desire and capability to serve – with some likewise chosen for a health examination – under the regards to the strategy which Pistorius will officially expose later Wednesday.

    The proposition represents a primary step towards possibly renewing some type of necessary military service, a questionable problem in Germany, and would need a modification to the military service law, according to info gotten by dpa.

    The nation efficiently eliminated required military or civil service for guys in 2011 after 55 years, although German law still attends to possible conscription in case of war or other stress.

    Germany’s armed force has actually dealt with workforce scarcities recently and in 2015 diminished to 181,500 soldiers in spite of brand-new efforts to draw in volunteers.

    Russia’s major intrusion of Ukraine triggered a numeration over the state of Germany’s diminished armed force and a promise from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal government to reconstruct the militaries.

    Including more employees is planned to assist make the army “war-ready,” as Pistorius explains it.

    Military coordinators approximate that 400,000 individuals will need to finish the prepared survey each year, and think about a quarter of them might reveal an interest in getting in the armed force.

    Some 40,000 prospects might then participate in the physical check-up.

    There is presently capability to train in between 5,000 to 7,000 employees, however this is set to grow. The military service is anticipated to last 6 or 12 months.

    Pistorius commissioned research studies of different designs of required service ahead of Wednesday’s statement.

    After notifying the parliament’s defence committee, Pistorius is because of discuss his propositions at an interview in the afternoon.

    Boris Pistorius, Germany's Defence Minister, pictured during a visit to the tank troop school in Munster. Christian Charisius/dpa

    Boris Pistorius, Germany’s Defence Minister, imagined throughout a check out to the tank troop school in Munster. Christian Charisius/dpa

  • Ukrainian president signs controversial law to boost conscription to fend off Russia’s aggression

    Ukrainian president signs controversial law to boost conscription to fend off Russia’s aggression

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a controversial law Tuesday, days after it was passed by parliament, potentially helping Kyiv to boost conscription to replenish depleted forces to fend off Russia’s continued aggression.

    The mobilization law, published on Ukraine’s Parliamentary website, is expected to take effect in a month and make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country. Many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.

    The law also provides soldiers with incentives, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car, which according to analysts Ukraine can’t afford.

    Ukraine has been struggling to fend off the Russian advance.

    Since the full-scale invasion began in Feb.2022, Russia has captured nearly a quarter of Ukraine, which is outnumbered, outgunned and in desperate need of more troops and ammunition, as doubt increases about Western military aid.

    The signed law was watered down from its original draft. It didn’t include a provision that would rotate out troops who had served 36 months of combat. Authorities said a separate bill on demobilization and rotation would be prepared in the coming months. But the delay caused public outrage among Ukrainians whose relatives have been fighting without breaks for two years.

    Exhausted soldiers have no means of taking a break from front-line work because of the current scale and intensity of the war.

    Ukraine already suffers from a lack of trained soldiers capable of fighting, and demobilizing soldiers on the front lines now would deprive its forces of the most capable fighters.

    In December, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military wanted to mobilize up to 500,000 more troops. Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has since conducted an audit of the military and said soldiers could be rotated from the rear to the front line. The number was revised but has not been disclosed.

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  • Ukraine’s Controversial New Plan to Enlist More Soldiers

    Ukraine’s Controversial New Plan to Enlist More Soldiers

    Members of the Siberian Battalion during military exercises with the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on April 10, 2024 in Ukraine. Credit – Andrew Kravchenko–Global Images Ukraine/ Getty Images

    Ukraine’s Parliament passed a law Thursday to expand conscription and tighten enforcement as its war with Russia grinds into its third year.

    The much-debated legislation includes a number of changes such as restricting men who don’t respond to mobilization orders from driving and requiring proof of military registration when requested at the border and getting a new passport. Most controversially, it didn’t include a proposed demobilization for soldiers after 36 months.

    “It’s a very, very complex law that will change the process of mobilization,” Oksana Zabolotna, head of the analytical department at Kyiv-based NGO the Centre of United Actions, tells TIME.

    Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also signed laws that lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25, among other measures. Zabolotna says she believes all new laws could together bring in around 50,000 more recruits.

    Zelenskyy had said in December his commander wanted him to mobilize up to 500,000 more soldiers, but later retracted that number after analysis by his new commander, the Associated Press reported. The real number of how many soldiers the country needs is classified, Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at U.K. think tank Chatham House, tells TIME.

    “The question is very sensitive,” Zelenskyy said in December when asked about details on expanded mobilization, according to an English interpretation by C-SPAN. “We cannot lose the resilience, the potential, but we need to have fairness, which is very important.”

    Here’s what you need to know about Ukraine’s new controversial conscription legislation.

    What is Ukraine’s new conscription legislation? 

    The new legislation revamps the mobilization system, which has been in place since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and its required military registration which predates that.

    The bill, which received more than 4,000 amendments, was passed on April 11. It needs to be signed into law by Zelenskyy and will go into effect a month after that.

    Some of the big changes make rules clearer to streamline existing military registration and mobilization processes, make fewer people exempt from military service, and tighten enforcement to prevent draft dodging, experts tell TIME.

    The BBC reported, based on illegal border crossing data from the country’s neighbors, that nearly 20,000 men left the country to avoid being drafted from February 2022 to November 2023, with Kyiv confirming to the BBC that another 21,000 were caught escaping.

    New provisions to crack down include allowing territorial recruitment centers to go to court and restrict a conscript’s right to drive a vehicle if he doesn’t respond to mobilization, with exceptions for those who need to drive for work or to take care of dependents. It also requires men to carry their military registration and show it when requested at the border and when getting a new passport.

    The legislation could also expand recruitment among people previously considered physically unfit for service, as it requires those under certain disability categories to undergo a second medical examination. This is to crack down on fake medical exemptions, Lutsevych says.

    However, some critics question whether this will be enough to improve the mobilization system.

    “The law that was passed does introduce more transparency and tries to make sure it’s harder for people to evade both the registration with the Territorial Recruitment Centers and the military service, but it is viewed by many as not being strict enough,” Julia Kazdobina, head of the Ukrainian Foundation for Security Studies, tells TIME in an email. “So, there is no confidence that it will fix the existing problem.”

    Why is the new legislation controversial? 

    The main contention with the legislation was a last-minute decision to remove a measure to allow troops to demobilize after 36 months.

    This was done by request from Ukraine’s Defense Minister and Commander in Chief, who wrote in a letter that they needed more time to work it out, Kazdobina says. Because of inefficient mobilization that could lead to imperfect implementation, “they don’t want to risk promising the current servicemen that they will be demobilized in a set time without being sure they will have people to replace them,” she adds.

    Ukrainian Parliament member Oleksii Honcharenko said on Telegram that he didn’t vote for the law because it was important to include demobilization. “I will continue to fight! It is necessary to establish clear terms of service!” he wrote, according to a Google translation of his post.

    The law was contentious for a few reasons, Marnie Howlett, a lecturer in politics at the University of Oxford, tells TIME. One is because of the need to balance supporting Ukraine’s economy with sustaining the military’s ranks, while another is the emphasis that has been placed on protecting a younger generation from war.

    And, after years of relentless fighting, “people are exhausted,” Howlett says. Demobilization would have offered hope to her friends and others on the frontlines, some without previous military experience and psychological safeguards, she adds.

    Kazdobina says the lack of an end date for service demotivates new recruits: “Many men say they don’t want to serve because this is like buying a one-way ticket.”

    However, the government has to weigh this with practical considerations that it needs troops. Zabolotna says the provision of demobilization “was known to be harmful and unenforceable” given that Ukraine doesn’t know when the war will end.

    She says an affordable and rational alternative must be offered for soldiers and officers who negatively perceive this. The legislation includes a provision for annual leave of 30 days, with one part not less than 15 days, given that no more than 30% of a unit is absent––but Zabolotna questions whether this is feasible given low troop numbers. Another draft law on demobilization is expected, she adds.

    TIME reached out to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, which referred questions to Ukraine’s Parliament, whom TIME also contacted, for a response to criticism.

    What do new laws mean for how Ukraine’s war effort is going? 

    Experts tell TIME measures to expand conscription show Ukraine is preparing for a long war.

    “I don’t think it’s necessarily indicative of things going badly on the battlefield, as much as it is Ukraine being prepared, and just realizing that this isn’t going to be as short as they thought,” Howlett says.

    Olga Onuch, a professor of comparative and Ukrainian politics at the University of Manchester, tells TIME in an email that the mobilization law was requested by the army, “but is also understood to be a necessity by all political leaders and parties” despite being understandably unpopular among the public. 
    Onuch says the law will be a political test for the President and political opposition leaders about how well they can work together on something that is not instantly supported by the public, which “will tell us a lot about the different political groups’ capacity to lead in the context of war.”

    Contact us at letters@time.com.

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  • Myanmar military begins basic training for draftees as resistance forces keep the pressure on

    Myanmar military begins basic training for draftees as resistance forces keep the pressure on

    BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military has begun basic training at military bases and schools across the country for draftees called up under the country’s recently activated conscription law, state-run media reported on Tuesday.

    The authorities activated the conscription law in February in a bid to to replenish the ranks that have been depleted in nationwide battles against ethnic minority armed groups and armed pro-democracy resistance forces opposed to military rule. The struggle began when the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

    Over the past five months, the army has lost territory in northern Shan state and in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere. It appeared this week that it may also lose the important trading town of Myawaddy, in Kayin state on the border with Thailand.

    Opening ceremonies for training were held in various regional commands and military schools in Mon and Shan states and Tanintharyi, Magway and Mandalay regions, as well as in the capital, Naypyitaw, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported Tuesday.

    It said the first batch of trainees were those who voluntarily reported to the army after the military government sent letters summoning them.

    The conscription law’s activation has created fear, anxiety and defiance among young people and their parents. Some are leaving the country, while others are fleeing into border areas controlled by ethnic minorities or joining resistance groups.

    Independent Myanmar media reported Tuesday that a few young people staged brief protests against conscription at three locations in Yangon, the country’s largest city. The protests on Monday were carried out as flash mobs to evade attacks or arrests by the authorities.

    Under the law, men aged 18 to 35 and women 18 to 27 can be drafted into the armed forces for two years. The military has said about 14 million men and women of the total 56 million population of the country are eligible for military service and it will draft 5,000 people at a time and up to 60,000 people a year. Evading conscription is punishable by three to five years in prison and a fine.

    Myanmar’s military is also reportedly tapping an unlikely source to fill its depleted ranks, turning to members of the the Muslim Rohingya minority, who seven years ago were the targets of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign incorporating rape and murder that saw an estimated 740,000 flee to neighboring Bangladesh as their villages were burned down.

    Analysts say the move is meant not only to counter the army’s attrition though deaths, desertions and defections, but also constitutes a divide and conquers strategy meant to reignite tensions between ethnic groups in Rakhine.

    Rohingya have lived especially in Rakhine for generations, but they are not officially recognized as an indigenous ethnic minority, instead being called Bengalis and described as illegal immigrants. They have been denied citizenship and other basic rights including freedom of movement, and are the targets of widespread social discrimination. The U.N. has estimated that 600,000 Rohingya are still living in Myanmar.

    The main anti-military resistance force in Rakhine state is the Arakan Army, which is part of the movement seeking greater autonomy for the Rakhine ethnic group that dominates the area. Rakhine nationalists were among the leading persecutors of the Rohingya minority, but now the Arakan Army and the Rohingya have a common enemy in the military government to took power in 2021, making them uneasy allies.

    Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya who is deputy minister for human rights in the shadow National Unity Government, said last month that the military is creating a conflict between the Rohingya and Rakhine ethnic groups in hopes of regaining the military advantage in Rakhine.

    “The military council is losing the battles nationwide. Especially in Rakhine, military camps are being abandoned almost every day, and the towns controlled by the military council are falling. In Rakhine, the military council is in need of a lot of human resources due to the depletion of the army. It seems that they have calculated that only by creating a conflict between Rakhine and Rohingya can the current situation be changed,” Aung Kyaw Moe said.

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  • Netanyahu pressured to conscript ultra-Orthodox men

    Netanyahu pressured to conscript ultra-Orthodox men

    Semafor Signals

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    Insights from The Conversation, CNN, and Foreign Policy

    The News

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is at odds with some ministers over plans to conscript ultra-Orthodox men into the Israeli Defense Forces. All Israeli adults must serve in the nation’s army, but ultra-Orthodox Haredi men are exempt.

    The Israeli Supreme Court had issued a deadline of the end of March for the government to resolve long-standing issues with Haredi conscription. Netanyahu’s proposed enlistment legislation for Haredi men still doesn’t mandate conscription for them, prompting fierce criticism from opposition members as well Netanyahu’s own coalition. Cabinet minister Benny Gantz has threatened to resign from his post if the legislation is passed, and defense minister Yoav Gallant has said he would not support it.

    SIGNALS

    Semafor Signals: Global insights on today’s biggest stories.

    Conscription biggest threat to Netanyahu’s government

    Sources:  CNN, Foreign Policy

    Haredi parties keep Netanyahu’s coalition government afloat, and if a conscription bill moves forward, as many as 18 seats in the Israeli parliament are at risk, Haaretz columnist David Rosenberg wrotein Foreign Policy. Haredi men oppose a possible draft, but 70% of Jewish Israelis support their conscription, especially in the wake of Oct. 7, since huge numbers of reservists have been called up to serve. “Netanyahu may try to kick the can again by giving the High Court a plan for a Haredi draft that looks good on paper but is designed to fail,” Rosenberg noted. “The problem is that in the post-Oct. 7 reality, almost no one else would accept it.”

    UItra-Orthodox make powerful political partners

    Source:  The Conversation

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up around 14% of Israel’s population, and have been exempt from military service since the nation’s founding. Haredi Jews are excused so that they can study religious texts, and the ongoing conscription debate prompted one of Israel’s chief rabbis,Yitzhak Yosef, to say that if the government forced them to conscript they would “all go abroad,” Michael Brenner, a professor of Jewish history and culture, noted in The Conversation. Some Haredi men serve voluntarily, but there is currently no law requiring their service. Much of the government’s reluctance to conscript the ultra-Orthodox comes down to their political clout: “Israel’s governments have continued to tolerate this situation as ultra-Orthodox political parties became much-needed partners,” Brenner wrote.

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