Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said there is currently no clarity on the issue of the possibility of the seventh wave of mobilization being announced.
“Whether or not the seventh wave of mobilization will be announced depends on a lot of factors. We are now looking if there is a need for that, the General Staff is making calculations. I hope for an increase in the number of people who want to serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces under contract. Many factors influence that, but the issue is currently not on the agenda,” Poltorak told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
Responding to a question as to whether visits by officials from military commissariats to the residences of citizens who are liable for military service have become frequent, the minister said: “They have always visited people, even when there was peace in Ukraine, they were just ignored.”
“We have procedures for registering people with military commissariats, and we should bring order to this registration. It’s routine work of military commissariat officials. One should not be afraid of that. Under Yanukovych, when the Defense Ministry was run by citizens of the Russian Federation, this registration was destroyed. Now we need to restore it,” Poltorak said.
The Ukrainian General Staff said last week that the seventh wave of mobilization to the Armed Forces will be conducted.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces will need more staff, due to the fourth wave of demobilization. The army will be staffed with both contract servicemen and mobilized people. Naturally, the more contract servicemen will be hired, the less the need for mobilized citizens will be,” the General Staff said on Facebook.
“The seventh wave of mobilization to the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be conducted,” the report said.
The General Staff said the Ukrainian Armed Forces are interested in being staffed with as many professional and motivated contract personnel as possible.
“We are now working with mobilized persons from the fourth wave, and also demobilized persons from the previous waves, to get them to sign contracts for military service. After the number of contract servicemen becomes clear, we can determine the need for mobilized persons,” the General Staff said.
