“We must protect the state without depriving it of its future”: Yulia Tymoshenko on the mobilization of youth aged 18 to 25
Recently, the issue of youth mobilization in Ukraine has caused a significant public outcry. In the conditions of war and the need to protect the state, the government makes decisions designed to ensure the effectiveness of the country’s defense. However, some of these decisions cause concern in society, especially when it comes to the mobilization of youth aged 18 to 25. The youth, who are the future of the nation, find themselves on the front line, often without sufficient training and experience, exposing their lives to serious risks.
The legislative conflict that arose in connection with the mobilization of this age group is becoming more and more visible. Despite political promises and legislative decisions that were supposed to protect young people from forced mobilization, the reality turned out to be completely different. The situation escalated to the point that the mobilization of youth aged 18 to 25 became massive, which caused outrage among society, politicians and human rights defenders.
Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the “Batkivshchyna” faction, became one of the loudest critics of this process. She strongly opposes such actions and demands immediate parliamentary intervention to remedy the situation. According to her, the adopted law on mobilization clearly defined that mobilization should cover only persons who have reached the age of 25, but after the signing of the law, it suddenly became possible to mobilize young people aged 18 to 25. According to Tymoshenko, this is unacceptable and needs immediate correction.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that when we adopted the law on mobilization with you, it was very clearly determined politically that mobilization can be carried out only from the age of 25. This was the decision of the Verkhovna Rada. How did it happen that when this law was signed , then it is absolutely insidious, without a decision of the Verkhovna Rada, that certain categories of youth from 18 to 25 years of age were allowed to be mobilized?”, — was indignant the leader of “Batkivshchyna”.
Yulia Tymoshenko calls on her colleagues to immediately consider draft law No. 11379, which should eliminate this legislative conflict. She reminded that, despite the previous decision of the parliament and the recommendations of the specialized committee regarding the urgent consideration of this draft law, it has not yet been included in the agenda. Tymoshenko emphasized that the mass mobilization of youth, without sufficient training, leads to the fact that many young people find themselves on the front lines, which can have catastrophic consequences for the future of the nation.
“It is illegal to mobilize young men under the age of 25! And the legal “collisions” that strangely appeared in the scandalous law and are abused by some officials today, will be corrected on the first day of the new session of the Verkhovna Rada.
We have to protect the state without depriving it of its future,” – wrote Yulia Tymoshenko on her page in Facebook.
The leader of “Batkivshchyna” expressed her indignation at the fact that the mobilization of youth under the age of 25 is taking place contrary to the statements of the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that the army is currently sufficiently staffed.
“Young people are being recruited en masse, sent to assault brigades with almost no training. I want to ask: who is planning to destroy the Ukrainian nation, depriving it of its future?”, – said Tymoshenko.
She also drew attention to the fact that draft law No. 11379, prepared together with other deputies, including Oleksiy Honcharenko, has been in the parliament for several months, and it has not yet been brought up for consideration. Tymoshenko reminded of last week’s decision of the Verkhovna Rada, adopted at the initiative of the “Batkivshchyna” faction, which obliged the specialized committee to urgently work out this bill so that it could be considered this plenary week.
The politician emphasized that the committee, having prepared its draft law, eliminated the authorship of other deputies and introduced its version of the law, which provides for the termination of the mobilization of youth aged 18 to 25 years. However, even in this version, this draft law has not yet been brought up for consideration either today or yesterday.
The leader of “Batkivshchyna” insists on the immediate introduction of the draft law to the agenda in order to unanimously vote for it and protect young people aged 18 to 25 from mobilization.
Yulia Tymoshenko emphasized that young people should have the right to volunteer for military service, but no one has the right to deprive the nation of its future.
