Zelensky Signs Law Allowing Convicts to Fight for Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday signed into law a bill allowing some Ukrainian convicts to serve in the country’s military in exchange for the possibility of parole at the end of their service, a move that highlight’s Kyiv’s desperate attempts to replenish its forces after more than two years of war.

Parliament passed the bill last week, and political analysts were unsure whether Mr. Zelensky would enact it given the sensitivity of the matter. The measure echoes a practice that Russia has widely used to bolster its forces and that Ukraine ridiculed at the beginning of the war.

But Ukraine is now ceding territory to advancing Russian forces, and the Ukrainian military urgently needs to increase the number of troops on the more than 600-mile front line if it is to prevent Russia from breaking through its defenses. Ukrainian officials have said the measure could allow up to 20,000 prisoners to be mobilized.

The law comes on top of several recent efforts by the Ukrainian government to shore up its exhausted and depleted troops, including lowering the draft eligibility age to 25 from 26, stepping up border patrols to catch draft dodgers and suspending consular services for military-age men living abroad. Mr. Zelensky also enacted a law on Friday that increases fines for evading the draft.

Ukraine’s shortages of soldiers has been particularly evident since Russia launched a new offensive push in the country’s northeast last week. The assaults have left the Ukrainian military scrambling to divert troops from other areas of the front and draw from their meager personnel reserves.

Ukrainian officials say they have now stabilized the situation in the northeast, but the rush of additional troops to the area has risked weakening other parts of the front where Russia is also on the attack, military experts say.