Until now, Ukraine has not asked to extradite Ukrainians living in Latvia to be drafted into the army

Ukraine has not yet asked to take specific steps in relation to Ukrainians who have reached conscription age living in Latvia.

The press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MA) Diāna Eglīte told the LETA agency that Latvia has not yet received an official request from Ukraine for any specific steps. “When it is received, the competent ministries of Latvia will carefully evaluate it in cooperation with the European Union (EU) member states,” she said.

The press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Ukraine has mentioned the mentioned topic, including to Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže on Friday, April 26, during a meeting with Ukrainian colleagues during her visit to Ukraine.

It has been reported that on April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed the controversial mobilization law, which aims to increase the number of soldiers.

Since Russia’s repeated invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022, the soldiers on the front lines have not had the opportunity to go on rest on a rotational basis, meanwhile, many thousands of Ukrainians continue to avoid conscription. The law introduces a number of changes to the current system, expanding the powers of the Ukrainian authorities to issue summonses through an electronic system.

The new law also introduces tougher penalties for avoiding conscription and requires men to update their military registration information with authorities.

However, the law does not provide for the demobilization of soldiers who have served at the front for a long time, which the legislators refused to do under pressure from the Ukrainian army. The MPs announced that the issue of demobilization will be addressed in a separate bill, but did not provide further details.

Zelensky this month signed a separate law that lowered the age of mobilization from 27 to 25.

Ukrainian passport. Photo: Eddy Palen/LETA