Well, tonight, we're focusing on Ukraine and Europe's ongoing support
for Kiev as it fends off our Russian invasion.
Earlier today, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was in Belgium as
part of a diplomatic European Tour designed to drum up
renewed military support from allies.
He is crisscrossing the continent as Russia continues its advance
on the Harkov region.
Now, during his visit to Brussels,
President Zelensky locked in a commitment from Belgium to supply
30F16 fighter jets by
2028. Meanwhile, there are reports that military instructors from France
could soon arrive in Ukraine.
That word came from Kiev's army chief and it was
quickly walked back by the French government.
The Defence Ministry only confirming that the issue was being
studied.
Siobhan Silk has the details.
Around 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have received training in EU countries,
but as yet no ally has sent instructors to Ukraine
to conduct drills on the
recruit's home soil. On Tuesday,
EU foreign Chief Joseph Borel said member states were split
on the prospect.
France's government was the first to suggest it might send
boots on the ground.
On the Telegram messaging app on Monday,
the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces announced that
France was indeed preparing to send military instructors to Ukraine.
Alexander Sirsky said he'd already signed the documents that would
allow the first French instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres
and get acquainted with their infrastructure and personnel.
But the French defence ministry later declined to confirm a
deployment was imminent,
saying only that it was being studied.
Ukraine then backtracked, stating the deployment of trainers was still
being discussed with France and other countries.
The confusion comes as Ukrainian forces have been struggling to
cope with renewed Russian pressure on the front line.
On his EU visit this week,
President Vladimir Zelensky has got new pledges for military aid.
But while hardware is one thing,
manpower is another. Ukraine's counter offensive continues to be Hanford
by a severe shortage of trained soldiers.
And all of this brings us to the question of
reintroducing mandatory military service in Europe.
With the war still raging in Ukraine,
some EU members, namely Italy and Germany,
are floating the idea of requiring young people to report
for military
ServiceNow Nine members of the block already require some form
of military service,
including Austria and Denmark. But for the vast majority of
EU members,
such a requirement was done away with decades ago.
For example, here in France,
the government suspended the requirement back in
2001. Well now though, in Italy,
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's League party has submitted a
bill to the Chamber of Deputies proposing a mandatory 6
month period of military civilian service for all young people
between the ages of 18 and 26.
And Germany's main opposition party,
the CDU, has put a gradual return to mandatory military
service back on its agenda.
For more on this, I'm joined by Tony Ingans Ingerson,
an assistant professor in political science at Linda University.
Thanks so much for being with us here in France
24 Now,
you recently wrote an article in The Conversation about this
issue.
So why are we seeing a desire on the part
of some EU members,
specifically in the case of Italy and Germany,
to return to the days where young people are required
to serve in the military for a period of time?
Why is this happening now?
Well, there are two main reasons I would say.
One is simply military manpower requirements.
It has been quite difficult for a lot of European
countries to
fulfill their vampire requirements through voluntary recruitment.
So conscription could be one way of solving that problem.
And the 2nd is that sometimes conscription is also advocated
for more political reasons as a way of
fostering national sensibilities and
making youth
grow up faster and take more responsibility of that kind
of thing.
Do you think we're going to see an increase in
this kind of trend with other EU countries requiring some
some kind of military training or service?
It, it is possible there is already
a kind of a trend going on in the sense
that Sweden suspended
conscription but for a few years,
but then reinstated it. But of course,
Sweden has a long tradition of conscription.
So it was not as challenging to reinstate it.
It would be significantly more challenging to reinstate conscription in
a,
in a country like Germany or Italy
where it hasn't been used for,
for quite some time. So
I'm it remains to be seen if they're willing to
make that kind of commitment and that kind of investment
that it would require to make these kind of drastic
changes. Does this boil down to a fear that Vladimir
Putin won't stop with invading Ukraine,
that he that he will make some kind of move
to encroach on a NATO member?
And how does NATO fit into this conversation?
I think that is that is a distinct possibility that
many countries are considering at this point that
they feel probably in many cases that they don't have
enough manpower
to to adequately serve their security needs.
And in that case, conscription is,
is a model that they have in many cases used
for a long time,
even if it's been some time since the end of
the Cold War.
So I think that that definitely is part of the
equation trying to to to meet the new requirements of
a deteriorating security situation in Europe.
So nine EU members have some kind of requirement,
whether that means reporting for service and having having a
medical exam or actually serving.
But Sweden is the only EU member with military conscription
for both men and women.
Why do you think that is?
And do you think that that might change for other
countries?
I think it's quite possible that other countries will follow
suit.
In the case of Sweden,
I'd say that the explanation is that we suspended conscription
in Sweden.
And then when we reintroduced it,
it was considered a natural step to also extend it
to women
since we were in the in the process of,
of changing it in the sense of reintroducing it.
And I think it's, it's worked quite well here and
there is fairly broad popular support for conscription here as
it has always been.
So I think that as other countries consider reintroducing conscription,
they will probably also need to consider,
if they want to, to have women as well,
part to be part of it.
How does the public perception of this issue of mandatory
military service,
How does this factor in and how is that playing
into the conversation?
You know, for example, in Austria,
there was a public referendum that upheld conscription by a
pretty wide margin.
Also, polls show that people in Sweden and Finland are
also widely in favor of it.
I think there are fairly considerable national differences to be
to take into account here.
So countries with a tradition of conscription
where conscription has also been working well,
because that's of course that's not guaranteed.
But if it works well and there's a long tradition
of having it,
then you can have a fairly high degree of legitimacy
and and a fairly high degree of popular support.
But in other countries where it's been some time since
conscription was used or where it's
been associated with other things that are less positive,
I think it, it's, it's going to be more difficult
to,
to
get the kind of popular support you need to,
to implement something like that.
So I think the, some countries have some ways to
go here before,
before it's, it, it'll achieve the kind of level of
support that you can see in Sweden and Finland,
for example. Well, so in Austria,
military service is compulsory for all male citizens for about
8 months.
But if you're a conscientious objector,
you can instead do 13 months of,
of community service. When it comes to Germany and Italy,
for example, do you see there being some kind of
allowance for young people who have moral objections to serving
in the military?
I, I think community services is a,
is a, is a good solution.
And that is something that we have had in Sweden
as well,
and which we are, we are also reintroducing because if
it's something we can see in Ukraine,
it is that there's going to be in a,
in a case of, of war,
it's going to be widespread devastation
of societies. And there's going to be
a lot of firemen needed,
construction workers, repairman, that kind of thing.
So a lot of extra people are,
are going to be needed.
And conscription could serve that kind of needs as well.
And that would also provide for people who are not
willing to take up arms to be able to contribute
in another way.
In your article, you sort of touch on this,
the political aspect of this.
You make a point about how Russia has recruited what
you called a disposable infantry,
using the private group Wagner and enlisting prisoners to fight
in Ukraine.
Can you explain what political reason Russia has for doing
this?
I think that in in Russia they are somewhat reluctant
to mobilize
people from the middle class,
people from urban settings, because that is
something that could breed discontent
and and undermine what they probably consider to be some
degree of popular support for the war.
So instead they recruit people from prisons,
from minorities and such,
and then they use them in a rather callous manner,
I would say. So they have two different categories,
simply speaking. So they have their disposable
kind of infantry that takes all the risks and suffer
very heavy casualties and they tend to be prisoners and
such.
And then they can use more valuable
kind of infantry, more regular infantry
to after that once the
first shock has been absorbed by this disposable infantry.
And I think that's a,
that's not, not, not new for the for from a
Russian point of view,
it's it's in line with their traditional way of,
of using people. But it's not something that any Western
country I think would consider.
OK, we'll have to leave it there.
Tony Ingerson, an assistant professor in political science at Lynn
University.
Thanks so much for joining us here on France 24.
We appreciate it. Thank you.
And that's it for now.
Stay tuned.