PM Koretskyi: General Staff Needs Troops as Draft Deferments Surge

Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said the government wants to review the rules on reservation of workers from mobilization because the General Staff needs troops and the number of reservations and deferments keeps rising, he told the BBC in an interview published on Monday, Oct. 19.

"The General Staff needs military personnel, needs mobilization. There are wounded who drop out. There are missing in action, sadly. Sadly, there are killed. And there are those who left units without permission. There are soldiers who have served for many years, even after being wounded, and who need rotation,"

he said.

"Soon absolutely everyone will be reserved"

According to the prime minister, the number of people who have deferments, are reserved or are evading mobilization is substantially larger than the number serving. Koretskyi claims that over the last six to eight months the number of reservations and deferments has been growing by tens of thousands every month. "If this dynamic continues, soon absolutely everyone will be reserved," he said.

"So, to at least stop this dynamic, which has taken a very negative trend, and to avoid abuse and manipulation in the reservation system, we are proposing to review the rules. We will put the emphasis on defense capability and on providing the defense forces with everything they need. Although the economy is certainly very important,"

he added.

Criteria for critical enterprises

Koretskyi said the main criteria for judging an enterprise as critical would be defense capability and sustaining the state's vital functions. As an example of abuse, he named a company that nominally makes two drones a year but reserves hundreds of workers; the aim of the changes is to minimize such cases.

He did not rule out economic reservation, but noted that the size of salaries and the absence of tax debt do not in themselves make an enterprise critical. More in Politics.