Ukraine adopted a law on mobilization at least one year too late, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with European Pravda published on Sept. 15.
Ukraine adopted the law in April as part of an effort to replenish the ranks of the Armed Forces. The need to increase the number of troops persists as Russia continues to advance in Donetsk Oblast and Ukraine opened a new front in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
Sikorski said that the law should have been passed when there were "many volunteers" to serve in the army and "people felt personally threatened." The minister also said he was surprised by the high number of military-aged Ukrainian men in Poland.
"I go to a hairdresser in Warsaw, and a young Ukrainian barber cuts my hair. And I asked him: 'What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be defending your country?'" Sikorski said.
The minister stressed that Poland does not pay social assistance to refugees who are able to work, adding that Western European governments are "more generous."
"The question is whether there should be financial incentives there (in the EU) rather than here (in Ukraine)," Sikorski said.
The Ukrainian government has told its Polish counterparts that it wants Ukrainian citizens to return home to pay taxes and work at factories, the minister noted.
"But also, you need people to rotate those brave soldiers fighting at the front line," he added.
Recent legislation reforms pertaining to mobilization also included a law lowering the minimum age of compulsory military service from 27 to 25.
After the new law on mobilization came into force in Ukraine on May 18, military-aged men were given 60 days to update their personal data so that the state could locate them. Between May 18 and the mid-July deadline, 4,690,496 military-aged men have done so, the country's Defense Ministry said.
Natalia Yermak
