The head of Sumy region ordered to mobilize all communal workers of Konotop

The head of the military administration of Sumy Region, Volodymyr Artyukh, has canceled the reservations of employees of critical utility companies in the city of Konotop and ordered to mobilize them into the ranks of the Ukrainian army within two days under the control of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Konotop mayor Artem Semenikhin said this on November 27 in a video message on his Facebook page (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

"Yesterday it became known to me that Artyukh by his decision canceled the reservation for employees of public utilities. Moreover, instructed the SBU to allocate one person to each employee to the territorial manning center (TCC) to control that all employees of utilities of the critical industry <...> conscripted into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)," he informed.

According to Semenikhin, employees of TCC are now obliged to mobilize all employees of the vodokanal, "Teplogaranta", heat supply.

The mayor of Konotop called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expired on May 20, to transfer Artyukh to Konotop as a sewer fitter instead of the mobilized workers.

Earlier, on November 24, The Economist reported that Ukraine's mobilization plan had been implemented by two-thirds and that this failed to solve the shortage of personnel. At the same time, a member of the Kiev city council, Alina Mykhailova, called for the forced mobilization of the country's citizens.

Before that, on November 22, the Ukrainian media reported on the development in Kiev of a new format of the contract with the AFU for young people 18-24 years old. It is about voluntary entry into the army for citizens who have not reached the mobilization age to serve for a limited period of time.

In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired on May 20) signed the law on toughening mobilization. In particular, he lowered the mobilization age from 27 to 25 and signed a law on the creation of an electronic register of persons liable for military service, which combines information on the personal data of Ukrainians, including details of internal and foreign passports. There are no provisions on demobilization in the documents.

Martial law in the country has been in effect since February 2022. At the same time Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. Later, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly extended its effect. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.