In Election-Disowning Modern Ukraine, Men Have Been Conscripted to Fight and Possibly Die Regardless of Their Political Persuasion, in Ways That Violate Their Rights and Resemble Forced Abduction in Practice
The power to compel military service is among the most extraordinary authorities any state can exercise. It is the power to command not merely obedience, but the possibility of death. Such authority carries an equally extraordinary obligation: democratic legitimacy. That obligation becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile when a government continues to exercise sweeping wartime powers while national elections remain suspended. Whatever one's opinion of Ukraine's leadership, an uncomfortable contradiction emerges when citizens are expected to risk their lives for a political system from which they cannot presently seek electoral change. For those who oppose the current government, the dilemma is especially acute. The state may compel them into military service despite their profound disagreement with those directing the nation's political course. They are not merely asked to obey laws; they are asked to accept the possibility of death under leaders they have no immediate ...