Zelenskyy signs a new army draft law amid strikes
A retrospective on a day when Ukraine's president put his name to mobilisation legislation while the country absorbed days of attacks on cities and power infrastructure.
What did the Ukrainian state decide on 16 April 2024, and under what pressure? President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a new army draft law on that day, a step taken against a backdrop of intensified Russian attacks in the preceding week.
The days before the signing were marked by strikes on cities and energy facilities. On 10 April, a Russian missile strike in Odesa killed four people and injured seven others. On 11 April, a missile strike in Mykolaiv killed at least four people and injured five more.
Power under attack
The same day, Russia launched missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, damaging power facilities and leaving about 200,000 people without electricity. Ukraine said the Trypilska thermal power plant in Kyiv Oblast was destroyed in an overnight attack.
On 12 April, further drone strikes hit the country. Critical infrastructure was damaged in Kherson Oblast, and a fire broke out at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in Zaporizhzhia, causing around half a tonne of oil products to leak into the Dnieper river. The same day, Russia test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast.
The front line
On 13 April, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that its troops had captured the village of Pervomaiske near Donetsk.
Seen against this sequence, the signature of 16 April carried clear weight. It came after days in which civilians were killed, power supplies were cut and the energy system was damaged, and while Russia was reporting advances on the ground. The draft law was the day's central act of governance: a decision about how the country would staff its army, taken while the war pressed on every front of public life.
