Dmitri Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English. He writes monthly situation reports as well as occasional special reports, including the following.
AFAIK there was no such vote, but even if there was it would not have counted the separatist regions of Donbas. That’s the main issue with this war, it was already ongoing in some form long before Russia invaded last year, going on since around 2014. Since the invasion, the government has also declared there will be no elections and started banning or even arresting the opposition (like the communist party).
The situation of democracy in Ukraine right now is incredibly shaky at best, which is why a lot of people (like me) criticise the government a lot. I understand that it’d be hard to have a referendum on the initial marshal law, but banning all adult men from even emigrating, and sometimes sending those who try to escape anyway back to the front, is to me a serious abuse by the government. IIRC During the start of the war, they also relied a lot on volunteers for the military, but now they’ve turned a lot to drafting civilians, which doesn’t bode well for how many people actually want to fight. But it’s really hard to get proper statistical data from Ukraine due to the aforementioned marshal law.
Being in the military reserve myself against my will, I deeply believe that nobody should be forced into military service. Not only does it sound really inefficient to have uninterested personnel, but it also is a gigantic breach on a person’s rights and can mentally and physically scar them for life, not to mention the risk of death.
AFAIK there was no such vote, but even if there was it would not have counted the separatist regions of Donbas. That’s the main issue with this war, it was already ongoing in some form long before Russia invaded last year, going on since around 2014. Since the invasion, the government has also declared there will be no elections and started banning or even arresting the opposition (like the communist party).
The situation of democracy in Ukraine right now is incredibly shaky at best, which is why a lot of people (like me) criticise the government a lot. I understand that it’d be hard to have a referendum on the initial marshal law, but banning all adult men from even emigrating, and sometimes sending those who try to escape anyway back to the front, is to me a serious abuse by the government. IIRC During the start of the war, they also relied a lot on volunteers for the military, but now they’ve turned a lot to drafting civilians, which doesn’t bode well for how many people actually want to fight. But it’s really hard to get proper statistical data from Ukraine due to the aforementioned marshal law.
Being in the military reserve myself against my will, I deeply believe that nobody should be forced into military service. Not only does it sound really inefficient to have uninterested personnel, but it also is a gigantic breach on a person’s rights and can mentally and physically scar them for life, not to mention the risk of death.