KYIV — Just weeks after manpower shortages forced Ukraine’s leaders to allow prison convicts to join the military, officials face a fraught political debate about whether to mobilize clergy, as well.

“There [are] discussions over how not to mobilize these people — how to provide them with an exemption from conscription,” Viktor Yelensky, who leads the Ukrainian state agency for Ethno-Politics and Freedom of Conscience, told the Washington Examiner during an interview at his office. “It’s a serious issue. I’m in the process of discussion with different government officials.”