Volunteer recruitment up 35 times over past 2 months, military says.

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Recruitment for voluntary service in the Ukrainian army has increased by 3.5 times over the past two months compared to the period from late 2022 to spring 2024, Roman Horbach, head of Ukraine's General Staff's personnel department, said on July 19. Ukraine's parliament adopted an updated mobilization law in mid-April in order to ramp up mobilization amid Russia's ongoing war. The new law simplifies the process for identifying eligible conscripts and included additional penalties for those dodging the draft.

Voluntary service is offered to those who want to join the army, but without signing a contract, Horbach said at a press conference in Kyiv. Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of thousands of people have volunteered for the Ukrainian army. In recent months, Ukraine launched centers for volunteers to join military.

"(People) can only be mobilized to a priority (combat) unit, for a non-priority (rear) unit only a contract is valid," Horbach added. According to the newly implemented law, all military-aged men, with some exceptions, must update their military documents within 60 days from May 18 at public service centers and enlistment offices, or via the online application Rezerv+. From May 18 to July 16, 4,690,496 military-aged men updated their registration data by the July 17 deadline.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that as of mid-July mobilization in Ukraine is going "according to plan," but there is currently a lack of training facilities for new soldiers.

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