Divisions in Ukrainian society may worsen due to the prolongation of the conflict, says Denis Gorbach, a researcher at the French Institute for Political Studies. In an interview with Alternatives Economiques, he explained that the main problem has become the mobilisation that Kiev needs to turn the tide on the front.
The prolongation of the conflict is creating new problems for Ukrainian society and could exacerbate divisions, Denis Gorbach, a researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Alternatives Economiques. The main stumbling block has been mobilisation: Kiev is looking for ways to send more soldiers to the front, hoping to change the situation.
According to the newspaper’s interlocutor, the Ukrainian government has submitted a draft law proposing to lower the age of conscription and toughen punishment for evaders. It was passed in the first reading in the Rada, but public opinion is divided. Families of those who are now on the front line support the expansion of mobilisation: it will allow them to replace their relatives. Others oppose it, and this division may become more acute: those who were not at the front are increasingly criticised and called cowards.
Controversy also surrounds emigrants who fled the war but eventually returned home. Some of the refugees, especially women, say they felt ill-will upon their return. Even more resentful of those left behind are men of draft age who fled mobilisation abroad, Denis Gorbach told Alternatives Economiques.