Ukraine’s divisive mobilization law takes effect as new Russian push strains frontline troops

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — A controversial mobilization law in Ukraine took effect Saturday, as kyiv struggles to increase its troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could be closer to the second most large city in Ukraine.

The legislation, which has been watered down compared to its initial draft, will make it easier to identify every conscript in the country. It also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses or money toward the purchase of a house or car, which some analysts say Ukraine cannot afford.

Lawmakers dragged their feet for months and only passed the law in mid-April. a week after Ukraine lowered the age of recruitable men from 27 to 25. The measures reflect the growing pressure put by more than two years of war with Russia on Ukrainian forces, who are trying to hold the front lines in fighting that has sapped the ranks and the country’s reserves of weapons and ammunition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also signed two other laws on Friday, authorizing prisoners to join the army and increasing the fines imposed on draft dodgers by five. Russia conscripted its prisoners from the start of the war and the lack of personnel forced Ukraine to adopt new measures.

Russian troops, meanwhile, are continuing a ground offensive that has opened a new front in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine and put additional pressure on Kiev’s already overstretched army. After weeks of investigation, Moscow launched a new offensive knowing that Ukraine suffered from a personnel shortage and its forces were scattered in the northeast.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday during a visit to China that the Russian push is aimed at creating “a buffer zone” rather than capturing Kharkiv, the local capital and Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Yet Moscow’s forces have hit Kharkiv with strikes in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure and sparking furious accusations from Zelenskyy that Russian leaders were seeking to reduce the city to rubble. On Friday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian guided bombs killed at least three residents and injured 28 others that day.

Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have died or been injured during more than 27 months of fighting.

The United States announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine last week, and President Joe Biden promised he would rush the country with badly needed weapons to help it repel Russian advances. Yet only small batches of U.S. military aid have begun arriving at the front line, according to Ukrainian military commanders, who said it would take at least two months before supplies meet kyiv’s needs to maintain line.

Thousands of Ukrainians have fled the country to avoid conscription since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022, with some risking their lives trying to swim across a river separating Ukraine from neighboring Romania and Hungary .

On Friday evening, Ukraine’s border service said at least 30 people had died trying to cross the Tisza River since the large-scale invasion.

A few days earlier, Romanian border guards had recovered the almost naked and disfigured body of a man who appeared to have been floating in the Tisza for several days. This is the 30th known victim, the Ukrainian agency said in an online statement. The man has not yet been identified, it is specified.

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