Ukraine lowers conscription age to 25
KYIV, UKRAINE • Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The new mobilization law came into force a day after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed it last year.
It was not immediately clear why Zelenskyy took so long to sign the measure into law. He made only a brief public comment about it at a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
An audit requested by Ukraine’s recently appointed commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, found that a previous estimate that the country needed 500,000 new recruits was wrong, Zelenskyy said. That is partly because troops serving in the rear can be sent to the front line, he said.
Zelenskyy said he wasn’t ready to tell journalists how many new conscripts the Ukrainian army will need.
Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine for many months amid a growing shortage of infantry on top of a severe ammunition shortfall that has handed Russia the battlefield initiative. Russia’s own problems with manpower and planning have so far prevented it from taking full advantage of its edge.
But the Russian military on Wednesday said it has experienced a recent surge in enlistments, attributing it to public outrage over last month’s terror attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 140 people.
About 16,000 people have signed up in the last 10 days, Russia’s Defence Ministry said. Its claim could not be independently verified.
An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The Kremlin has insisted, without providing evidence, that Ukraine and the West played a role in the killings, despite their strong denials.
The law Zelenskyy signed to lower the conscription age is distinct from a more controversial and expansive draft mobilization law which is still being considered in parliament.
Zelenskyy also signed two other laws pertaining to mobilization, including one that creates an online registry for recruits.
“These laws introduce changes only to some aspects of the mobilization process. But still there are many other issues that have to be resolved,” said Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst with the Center for United Actions, a government watchdog in Kyiv.
Lowering the conscription age likely would not meet the military’s request for 500,000 new recruits, she said.