Ukraine sets conscription age at 25 in bid to replenish troops
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine lowered its drafteligible age for men from 27 to 25 Wednesday, reflecting the strain that more than two years of war with Russia has put on its military and the need to infuse its depleted ranks with new conscripts.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed three bills into law aimed at strengthening the country’s beleaguered forces, which are trying to hold the front lines in fighting that has sapped Ukraine’s ranks and stores of weapons and ammunition.
The new laws, which will also do away with some draft exemptions and create an online registry for recruits, might add around 50,000 troops to the military, said Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst with the Center for United Actions, a government watchdog in Kyiv.
That would be a 10th of the 500,000 additional troops Zelenskyy said in December the military wanted to mobilize. But after signing a security agreement with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said an audit requested by Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief determined the 500,000 figure was wrong, partly because existing troops could be sent from the rear to the front. He didn’t say why that option wasn’t considered previously.
Zelenskyy said he wasn’t ready to say publicly how many new conscripts the Ukrainian army will need.
“I can say that Russia is preparing to mobilize an additional 300,000 military personnel on June 1,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
Ukrainian Defense Ministry statistics say the country’s military had nearly 800,000 troops in October. That doesn’t include National Guard or other units. In total, 1 million Ukrainians are in uniform, including about 300,000 who are serving on front lines.
Conscription has been a sensitive matter amid Ukraine’s growing shortages of infantry and ammunition, which have helped give Russia the battlefield initiative. Russia’s own problems with manpower and planning have so far prevented it from taking full advantage of its edge.
The average soldier’s age on both sides is more than 40, military analysts say. Some Ukrainians worry lowering the minimum conscription age to 25 and taking more young adults out of the workforce could backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy, which is why the draft age wasn’t simply set at 18. But the problem has become more pressing because Kyiv is expecting a renewed push by Russian forces this spring or summer.
The Russian military said Wednesday that it has experienced a recent surge in enlistments, attributing it to public outrage over last month’s 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 Defense Ministry said, though its claim couldn’t be independently verified.
An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the concert hall attack, but the Kremlin has insisted, without providing evidence, that Ukraine and the West played a role, despite their strong denials.