Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Photo: Reuters).
Responding to Channel 4 , President Zelensky said he did not see the need for the country to mobilize 500,000 troops.
"Personally, I don't see any point in mobilizing half a million people at this time. I'm not saying this just to make people like me. First, the lives of soldiers are the top priority. The second point concerns the appropriateness of the recruitment. I don't see enough grounds to conclude that Ukraine should mobilize half a million people," he said.
"The third point is that recruiting soldiers will require more budget. We do not receive aid from our partners for those funds, I want everyone to understand that," he emphasized, saying that all costs of salaries and training of soldiers are paid by Ukraine itself.
However, President Zelensky believes that the mobilization of troops is necessary to replace soldiers fighting at the front.
Earlier, Ukrainian military officials proposed at a meeting of the Supreme Command that the country should mobilize an additional 450,000-500,000 troops. However, Mr. Zelensky said the issue was still under consideration.
Late last year, Mr Zelensky admitted that large-scale military recruitment was a “very sensitive” issue that the military and the government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both Moscow and Kiev have stepped up recruitment to the front lines. Neither side has released details of its own casualty figures, but U.S. officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of service members have been wounded or killed in the nearly 22 months since.
Ukraine has not given a specific number of troops, but Kiev has previously said it has 1 million armed men. Russia has also expanded its military during the war, and Moscow has said it plans to increase its troop strength to 1.5 million.
According to him, Ukraine will need an additional $13.5 billion in budget if it approves the plan to mobilize half a million more troops.
Ukraine is facing the challenge of sending more recruits to the front lines, with Mr Zelensky firing all local military recruitment agency officials in August after it emerged that bribes were being taken to help eligible men avoid the draft.
Mr Zelensky's move has been criticised by some military officials, who say it could seriously hurt Ukraine's recruitment efforts in a war of attrition with Russia.
Last week, Mr Zelensky called on Ukrainian men of military age who are abroad to return to Ukraine to support the country's economy and also defend their homeland.
Mr. Zelensky replied that in the early stages of the war, Ukrainians of different genders and ages went abroad because no one knew what would happen next. He said that the Ukrainian people saved themselves and that neighboring countries opened their borders to them.
However, he said the situation had changed, so at least Ukrainian men should return home.
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