All Ukrainian soldiers under 20 years of age are to be withdrawn from the war zone in the Donbas, civilian volunteer Roman Donik has said.
Writing on his Facebook page, Donik said frontline soldiers had received orders from Ukraine’s General Staff on March 22 about the withdrawal, although no troops have been pulled out of the war zone so far.
“All the contract soldiers under 20 are to be pulled back from the first defensive line,” Donik wrote on his Facebook page. “Not only withdrawn, but also reassigned to permanent bases for further service and training,” he wrote.
According to Ukrainian legislation, only persons over 20 years old can be called up for military conscription, which lasts from 12-18 months, and conscripts may not be deployed in the war zone. However, a military contract entailing combat service in an area of active hostilities can be signed by a duty-fit person starting from the age of 18.
“This order, issued by the Chief of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko, is meant to eliminate an existing legal conflict,” Ukraine’s military spokesman Yaroslav Chepurny told the Kyiv Post. “So contract soldiers under 20 will not be deployed in areas in close vicinity of the frontline. They will be returned to the home front, and continue serving their contracts.”
At least 64,000 persons signed contracts to serve in Ukraine’s armed forces in 2016, for terms ranging from six months to five years under various conditions, including as many as 7,200 officers, according to Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, Major General Oleh Schevchuk.
As part of the reform of Ukraine’s armed forces, contract servicepersons are planned to make up to 80 percent of the private and junior-ranked officers in combat units, while conscripts are mostly assigned to support and non-combat units.
However, not all soldiers serving at the front are happy with the planned redeployment.
Many contract soldiers aged under 20 have been serving in the war zone for over two years and have a great deal of combat experience, the commanding officer of Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade, Anatoliy Shtefan, wrote on his Facebook page.
Shtefan’s unit has been serving in the war zone hot spot of Avdiyivka, north of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, an area that has seen particularly heavy fighting since the end of January.
Up to 2,630 Ukrainian soldiers and officers have been killed since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in the Donbas in April 2014.
