(CNN) Ukraine’s parliament has scrapped plans to give soldiers who have spent prolonged periods fighting on the frontlines the chance to return home on rotation, after passing a draft law seeking to boost the number of soldiers in its military.
Over a hundred women braved a snowstorm in early December to gather in central Kyiv’s Independence Square and call on the government to demobilize their relatives who have been on the front lines since the first days of the invasion. Draped in Ukrainian flags, women chanted “It’s their turn now.” Many Ukrainian soldiers who volunteered when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 are still on the front line, exhausted after almost two years of combat without a break.