Conscription

Ukrainian police conducted nationwide raids on draft dodger gangs on Friday as the country battles to generate enough conscript soldiers.

Ukrainian recruiters are reportedly roaming the streets of the country in a desperate effort to bolster the ranks of the military as the war with Russia continues to sap the native population.

Reports published in the past week indicate that Ukraine is struggling to conscript enough soldiers to replace its staggering battlefield losses against Russia. The Russians have taken horrific casualties as well, but their vastly larger population could be the key to eventually winning a war of attrition.

Croatia will reintroduce a two-month compulsory military service starting January 1 next year, the country’s Defense Minister said.

Rishi Sunak proposes a Chinese social credit system for the UK, where access to modern life basics like a car or banking could be withdrawn.

The United States government warned that dual citizens of Ukraine and the U.S. who are within the age of conscription may face the possibility of being stuck in the country.

Germany has reportedly scrapped plans to reintroduce military conscription to fill the depleted ranks of the Bundeswehr.

The Russian bordering Nordic nation of Norway announced the most significant change in its defence in modern times.

Russia needs a stronger deterrence to stop its aggressive moves on mainland Europe and a UK reintroduction of conscription would go some way to foiling Moscow’s predatory ambitions, Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill to lower the conscription age to 25 in a bid to expand the ranks of his military.

Norway has become the latest European state to look again at its conscription programme, pushed by Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The UK should reinstitute military conscription of British citizens to act as a deterrent against Russia, a NATO ally has urged.

Denmark is more than doubling the period of mandatory service, calling up more young people, and requiring women to enrol for the first time.

Less than 40 per cent of Germans said they would be unwilling to defend their nation with weapons even if it came under attack, a survey has found.

Germany’s newspaper of record postulates whether Ukrainian men of military age should be encouraged or forced to go home.

To replenish its ranks, the Ukrainian government is struggling to find a balance between coercion and persuasion.

Govt strongly denies they are considering conscription even as military discusses how the Army is learning from “mission rehearsal” Ukraine.

Army must prepared to “rapidly expand” to field a “citizen army”, top general says, praising Euro states for bringing back conscription.

A proposal to let foreign citizens serve in the German army is under consideration by Berlin. If approved, it will allow the Bundeswehr to build strength on the back of a recent announcement that conscription could return as the prospect of a grand “European army” looms on the horizon.

More than half of Germans of all ages – with one key cohort excepted – want to restore compulsory military service, a survey released Thursday reveals, as war on the European continent between Russia and Ukraine drags on into another year.

The British Army is now the smallest it has been in 200 years while in Germany the defence minister speaks of bringing back conscription.

President Zelensky reportedly told U.S. lawmakers that he is considering raising the military conscription age to over 40 years old.

Huge numbers of young Ukrainian men have fled the country to avoid being drafted in the army to fight Russia, a report states.

Explicit recruitment ad targeting women for the Ukrainian Army is Russian propaganda and not an official video, Kyiv have said in a statement. 

Scores of protesters gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities on Friday to demand a cap of 18 months on mandatory military service.

Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted on Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of volunteers are rushing to join the Russian military and fight in Ukraine.

Russia has legally increased the age for military conscription to 30 years old in a bid to bolster its ranks amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Russian President Putin signed a bill to allow authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the war in Ukraine.

The British defence minister appeared to have an unguarded moment on Wednesday, before his office walked the comments back hours later.

Russia is preparing to widen conscription in order to shore up its military strength, according to British intelligence.

A growing debate is emerging in Germany as to whether military conscription should be reintroduced after it was abolished in 2011.

Women should be open to being conscripted into the military in light of the threat posed by Russia, Denmark’s defence minister said.

Taiwanese Foreign Ministry Joseph Wu told Sky News on Wednesday that China is growing “more likely” to invade as Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s domestic problems grow more serious.

China launched its largest incursion to date into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Sunday. 71 Chinese military aircraft entered the ADIZ in a span of 24 hours, 43 of them also crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the unofficial border between the mainland People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the island-based Republic of China (ROC).

Polling suggests that only a minority of young, military-age Britons support their country’s role in the Russo-Ukrainian war, while a huge majority of much older Britons are in favour of it. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday denied reports that up to 700,000 Russians have fled the country to avoid President Vladimir Putin’s military mobilization for the war in Ukraine. Peskov admitted there have been some hasty defections, but insisted the number was much lower.