Mariia Tsiptsiura, Onet: How will this autumn's mobilization differ from previous stages?
Ivan Tymochko: In fact, general mobilization has been taking place in Ukraine since February 2022. There were no waves of mobilization, there were no divisions into stages – mobilization continues without interruption. Citizens aged 25 to 60 who are fit for service due to their health condition are called up to join the army. There are exceptions: parents with many children, guardians of people with disabilities, disabled people themselves – these citizens are not subject to mobilization. Initially, in February 2022, the first to go were volunteers and reservists – those who had war experience and had served during the anti-terrorist operation [tak do 2018 r. Kijów określał działania wojenne, prowadzone na wschodzie Ukrainy od 2014 r.]. Then the process of forming a million-strong army from the pre-war 250,000 began.
The full-scale war has been going on for four years now. The front line has increased by 200 km this year alone. And of course there are losses, there is a need to renew the personnel, there are new types of weapons.
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Everyone is currently discussing “automatic military registration.” Do I understand correctly that the main change this fall will be the creation of a single database?
Yes, you understand correctly. For mobilization to be effective, we must know exactly who is in Ukraine, who is subject to mobilization, who is unfit for service, and who has weapons. A unified data system is needed that integrates various state registers – for example, the demographic register, the register of conscripts (“Oberih”), the migration service register, the border database on departures, the registers of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Policy, the pension fund, the register of civil status acts, court registers, the tax register, the electoral register, etc.
Thanks to this, recruitment centers will have access only to the necessary information: where a given person is located, whether there are any restrictions preventing him from serving, whether he has a family, etc. We, as a country, need to know how many people we can recruit, for example in the event of announcing general mobilization in the Russian Federation. In fact, this is necessary to ensure that those unable to serve do not receive calls and overload recruitment centers. We must be as prepared as possible for all scenarios.
The question is, what skills do people who will be called to military service have?
Yes, we receive many weapons from partners, we produce them ourselves. When necessary, we need to know how to call on people with specific professional skills, for example engineering. But at the same time, it is important that we do not take away those people who, for example, work in critical factories. It is to maintain this balance that it is important that recruitment centers have access to partial information from other databases that they need to assess the quality of the criteria for conscription and selection of people into the army. They need to know whether a given person resides in Ukraine, where he works, and what his health condition is. Plus the large category of internally displaced persons. You need to know where these people are.
How long might it take to integrate these databases? When will automatic military registration take effect?
This will be an ongoing process. Unifying and collecting data is a difficult task. It is not only about collecting these databases, but also about processing new data that will constantly arrive. Recruitment centers will not receive full access to all databases. Access will be limited to information necessary to make a decision: actual location, health condition, etc. This is not about total surveillance, as Russian propaganda presents it. It's about registration in a war-torn country.
And what is basic military training? Is this something new?
Basic general military training is a new approach to training young people aged 18-24 who are not yet mobilized and are studying at universities. This is not military service, but training in basic skills: using weapons, tactics, first aid, behavior during air raids and drone attacks.
This is very important to us and I think it's the right approach. In short: it's about basic skills. The goal is to prepare a person for military service morally and technically. This helps you understand where a person might end up in the military. If the war continues, these people will already be partially prepared. This will reduce the burden on the army and the stress of the mobilized people themselves. They will soon be doing this in other countries bordering Russia, for example in Poland.
Russia is still trying to disrupt mobilization in Ukraine. How exactly?
Russia is attacking territorial supply centers – that's a fact. There is also an information war going on. There are recordings of conflicts between citizens and employees of territorial collection centers. Mobilization covers 25-30 thousand people every month. people, this is still happening and the Russians are trying to discredit it. But there is a war going on for the existence of our country, we have no other choice.
