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- Ukraine will no longer provide consular services to the hundreds of thousands of men of conscription age living abroad.
- They will receive help only with documents to help them travel back to Ukraine.
- Ukraine is struggling with manpower as it tries to fight off Russia, and draft dodging remains an issue.
Ukraine on Tuesday suspended consular services for military-age men abroad except ones to help them return to their home country, dramatically stepping up its effort to boost conscription in the war against Russia.
Hundreds of thousands of military-age Ukrainian men are living abroad and the country faces an acute shortage of troops against a larger, better-equipped enemy nearly 26 months since Russia's full-scale invasion.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement that he had ordered measures to be taken to restore what he described as fair treatment for men of mobilisation age.
"How it looks like now: a man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state," he said on X.
"It does not work this way. Our country is at war."
Kuleba said the foreign ministry would clarify the procedure for military-age men to obtain consular services soon.
"Staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the homeland," Kuleba said.
Some 4.3 million Ukrainians were living in European Union countries as of January, 2024, of whom about 860 000 are adult men, the Eurostat database estimated.
Ukraine imposed martial law at the start of the full-scale war, banning men aged 18 to 60 from travelling abroad without special dispensation and beginning a rolling mobilisation of civilian men into the armed forces.
A Ukrainian man living in Warsaw, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone he thought the suspension would alienate citizens loyal to Kyiv.
Another Ukrainian, 21-year-old Anatoly Nezgoduk, who is studying in Canada, said: "I understand very well that there is a war in our country, so I can't call this move weird, illegal or incorrect. In a way, this distances me from Ukraine's official representation abroad."
Mobilisation law
Some military analysts say the shortage of manpower is Ukraine's most significant battlefield weakness. It also faces an acute lack of artillery shells, although Kyiv hopes US military aid will replenish its stocks soon.
There have been numerous cases of draft dodgers trying to flee the country. The border guard service said it had detained eight men trying to cross into Hungary illegally on Tuesday.
The state passport service said the issuance of ready-made passports had also been suspended for "technical reasons" for all citizens abroad expect children under the age of 12.
A foreign ministry helpline said the suspension of consular services would remain in place until clarification on how to implement the new law overhauling the way the mobilisation effort is conducted.
The law, which comes into effect next month, aims to improve and speed up the way the military mobilises civilians into the armed force.
The law will require all military-age men to report to draft offices to update their papers, remotely or in person within 60 days. Military-age men abroad would need those papers to receive consular services.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, predicted the suspension of consular services would not be a very efficient way to get people to update their personal data for military papers.
"But sooner or later many men will have to choose whether they will confirm their Ukrainian citizenship. Some part of people will delay, they will use corrupt ways and consular services abroad will earn good money on it," he said.
