UKRAINE’S parliament passed a law today to boost the number of conscripts and to fill depleted army ranks.

Lawmakers dragged their feet for months over the law, which is expected to be unpopular across the country. 

The law was spurred by a request from Ukraine’s military, which wanted to mobilise up to 500,000 more troops, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in December.

Exhausted soldiers, on the front lines since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, had no means to rotate out for rest, while many thousands of Ukrainian men evaded the draft.

The law was passed against a backdrop of a war that many experts say has all but been lost to Russia.

The law brings into effect a host of changes to the current system by expanding the powers of Ukrainian authorities to issue draft notices using an electronic system.

Incumbent army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and President Zelensky have since revised that figure after conducting an audit, saying the number needed was not as high because soldiers can be rotated from the rear.

Former army commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi was reportedly dismissed from his post over the mobilisation issue.