As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted new amendments to the draft permitting the army to conscript 25-year-olds last week and removed several categories of exemptions from military service, his government decided, that alongside certain state employees who are still exempted, several circus troupes are enterprises of "critical importance", and as such performers would also be exempted from mobilization, as confirmed by two lawmakers on April 7.
A Verkhovna Rada Party member, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said on Telegram that the Traveling Circus of Ukraine and five other troupes have been labeled as “critically important enterprises... for the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihoods of the population during a special period."
Another MP, Alexey Goncharenko, also confirmed this designation and said that this did not come as a surprise since the mobilization and exemption procedures have “turned into a circus long ago.”
The defense industry is not included in the list of strategically important enterprises whose employees are exempted from the draft, however, producers of paint and plaster, video game publishers, and even a company that breeds camels are, Goncharenko said.
Zheleznyak, from his end, quipped that those must be special “combat camels,” as there is no other explanation for their exemption.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/ukraine-to-exempt-clowns-from-mobilization-for--critical-imp
