800,000 men go 'underground' to avoid mobilization – MP Natalukha

About 800,000 men in Ukraine went "underground" to avoid the draft, changed their actual address and took jobs paid in cash, the chairman of the Economic Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Dmytro Natalukha, told Financial Times.

Stay updated with the latest news by following us on X (Twitter)

Natalukha is the author of three bills on economic reservation. He believes that this idea will encourage these individuals to leave the shadow economy, show their income and start paying taxes.

He assumes that the economic reservation model with a salary of more than 36,336 hryvnias ($889) has the most chances.

Many believe that the system of mobilization, which depends on the amount of money in the company or conscripts, is unfair.

"If you have money, then you get to be exempt. It’s not correct. Where is the justice? Why did I need to lose my eye, while someone can just pay and not go?" lawyer-turned-soldier Masi Nayyem, who was seriously injured in 2022, told the FT.

One of the servicemen called the idea of economy booking simply stupid. "It’s unfair to those who voluntarily mobilized in 2022," he said.

But, as Natalukha said, "you cannot win the war with mere fairness. War is unfair per se."

Many lawmakers, in particular in the leadership of the parliament, oppose economic reservation. Oleksandr Korniyenko, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, said that this could create "another dividing line of society between the rich and the poor."

Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said that "this is a very sensitive issue" and the adoption of the law on economic reservation is not guaranteed by the parliament.