In the conditions of the military conflict, which has been going on for the third year on the territory of Ukraine, the question of mobilization is becoming more and more urgent. While some men are fighting, others are looking for ways to avoid the draft by going underground. This creates serious problems for the Ukrainian economy and enterprises, which are already experiencing a shortage of personnel. How do politicians and businessmen comment on the current situation?
According to estimates, about 800,000 men are trying to avoid the draft by changing their addresses and taking up cash-paying jobs. This has resulted in conscription officers targeting companies such as Interpipe where workers are listed and physically present at the plant. He stated this in an interview with the newspaper Financial Times Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development Dmytro Natalukha. According to his forecasts, the maximum crisis at enterprises will occur at the end of September 2024.
Natalukha emphasized that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukrainian companies have lost from 10% to 20% of personnel due to mobilization and departure of people from the country. The resumption of the Russian offensive in 2024, which has resulted in more death and destruction, as well as constant power outages, is forcing even more people to leave the country.
He emphasized that the labor shortage will increase significantly in the future, and some enterprises will have to close.
“More and more enterprises will be closed simply because they will not have enough resources to continue working. I don’t want to make apocalyptic predictions, but obviously the deadline is the end of September.
Earlier this year, the conscription age was lowered by two years to 25. However, many business leaders claim that the conscription system is already unfair due to widespread corruption: according to estimates, Ukrainians spend from 700 million to 2 billion hryvnias per year to buy documents about exemption from military service. A war cannot be won by justice alone. War itself is unjust.
You can mobilize 1 million people, but if you don’t have the resources to arm them, there will be no war. The army will be left naked and helpless if the economy collapses. If the bill, which allows companies to pay employees for refusing the draft, is adopted, it will free about 895 thousand people from military service and will allow to collect about 200 billion hryvnias for the army. – believes Natalukha.
“We are working at the limits of our capabilities,” said Vitaly Pakhomov, Interpipe’s personnel director. Although Interpipe has been designated a strategic enterprise, which means that half of its employees can be exempted from military service, about 1,000 people are still at risk of mobilization. “Without them, it’s hard to imagine how we would work,” Pakhomov said.
As an example, the newspaper cites the company Interpipe – a powerful manufacturer of seamless pipes and products for railways. Once upon a time, four men operated a complex machine that forged molten steel into industrial parts at a large factory in Dnipro, in central Ukraine. One of them was drafted into the Ukrainian army and died. The second one went missing. The third must resign. The owner of the plant, the company “Interpipe”, is desperately trying to keep the fourth: a young specialist of draft age, who can be drafted into the army at any moment. Faced with numerous similar cases and the availability of more than 1,000 vacancies, Interpipe has joined Ukrainian companies calling for a mass exemption from military service, which they believe is necessary for the country’s economic survival.
“We are working at the limit. Although Interpipe has been recognized as a strategic enterprise, which means that half of its employees can be exempted from military service, about 1,000 people are still at risk of mobilization. Without them, it is difficult to imagine how we will work. Each shop manager, supervisor and plant director is like a chess player. He comes to work, discovers that the board is missing a new figure. What shall I do?
The company is maintaining production volumes thanks to a “tremendous” effort by workers taking extra shifts and other measures, he said. But if the mobilization increases, “it is inevitable that we will have to start reducing volumes … which means reducing the taxes we pay,” — believes Vitaly Pakhomov, Director of Human Resources of “Interpipe”.
“The logic doesn’t work. We don’t have enough people who want to go to war… and then we reduce the numbers even more. Many also argue that a conscription system based on financial resources, whether that of a company or an individual, would It’s unfair. If you have money, you can be fired. Why should I lose an eye, when someone can just pay and not go? idea. It’s unfair to those who volunteered in 2022.”, – Masa Nayem, a lawyer who manages the organization of war veterans, told the publication.
In turn, Anna Derevyanko, executive director of the European Business Association, a Ukrainian business lobby group, said:
“People who have the means simply pay off. So we return to the starting point: those who are poor go to the army, and those who have the means do not. Moreover, they do not go to the state budget, but directly in the pocket of “corrupt officials”.
Oleg Horohovskyi, co-founder and general director of Monobank, believes:
“In the conditions of war and economic crisis, the country cannot help but make difficult, unpopular decisions. In a war of attrition, in which Russia’s resources significantly exceed Ukraine’s, it is not about justice, but about efficiency. A highly qualified programmer in a bank or on the online market can to be more useful for Ukraine than if he had been sent to the frontline.”
So, the problem of mobilization in Ukraine causes many disputes and different points of view. Politicians and businessmen face difficult decisions as they try to strike a balance between protecting the country and sustaining the economy. Despite all the difficulties, both sides agree that the future of Ukraine depends on effective and fair decisions.
