Zelensky hopes the new law will increase the number of troops in Ukraine’s front line military forces to something far closer to what Russia has on its side.
Under the terms of the law, certain categories of prisoners will be given the option of signing contracts which will reduce their sentences if they join the country’s armed forces.
Not all prisoners are eligible for this new plan. Those convicted of political corruption, rape, double murders, or related to national security are not eligible.
This is just one of several initiatives President Zelensky is putting into effect in the country this week, all with the intent of putting more people into the country’s war effort. Among those will be new executive decrees placing tough sanctions on men who are old enough to serve in the military but refuse to sign up to fight.
Zelensky’s war effort will also be benefiting shortly from a long-awaited allotment of $61 billion in military aid from the U.S. Congress last month, plus an incremental $2 billion on top of that which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this week. He disclosed the additional $2 billion, a sum authorized solely by puppet Joe Biden and outside of the Congressionally approved $61 billion, during a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv on May 15.