Thus, despite the country's need to recruit more soldiers, the idea may not move forward because it does not find enough support in the country invaded by Russia, according to political sources cited today by the Spanish news agency EFE.
Ukraine's foreign partners would even like the country to lower the recruitment age from the current 25 to 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in a recent interview.
However, he stressed that there are currently no plans in this direction. "We do not see why such changes should be introduced. I think it would be dangerous," Zelensky said last Friday.
According to Fedir Venislavski, a member of the Parliamentary Defense Committee, foreign partners consider that young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are the most effective fighters, "given their physical and psychological qualities".
Roman Kostenko, secretary of the same commission, also said in a recent interview that some of his foreign colleagues find it contradictory that Ukraine is asking for urgent help yet not calling so many of its citizens to arms.
Younger men could help build a better Ukrainian army if they were given experience earlier, says Igor Obolensky, commander of the Jartia brigade.
The draft age in Ukraine was lowered from 27 to 25 in April, when Zelensky signed the law after long deliberation.
In October, parliament repealed several exceptions that allowed men under 25 to be drafted.
But the idea of drafting younger men has raised concerns among many, given the country’s complicated demographic situation.
Ukraine's population was declining rapidly even before the Russian invasion, and was 41 million in 2022, down from 51.6 million in 1991.
Since then, millions of Ukrainians have fled the war and the number of births in the country has fallen by a third.
Due to the low birth rate in the 1990s, the number of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 is also much lower than in other age groups.
"Most of these people do not have families or children. In addition, they are less prepared mentally and physically for combat than older men. If they die or are seriously injured, our demographic prospects will worsen even further," Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst with the Information Resistance group, told EFE.
This is a very big risk that cannot be ignored, even in this complicated situation, as Ukrainian MP Sergei Rakhmanin recently warned.
Since the future of the country may depend on these people, they must be protected as much as possible, also argued the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni.
The mobilization is not going well, Kovalenko told EFE: 20,000 recruits are currently undergoing initial training, compared to 35,000 a few months ago, Vasil Rumak, of the Ukrainian General Staff, who is responsible for preparing the new soldiers, said on Saturday.
Whatever the minimum age for conscription, men over 40 will continue to bear the brunt of the war and other measures are needed, analysts say.
Many Ukrainians are willing to enlist in the army, but they want to know if they will be properly trained and equipped, sociologist Anton Grushetski told EFE. "We have enough people, but they expect more support from our partners," stressed the director of the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
On Friday, the Ukrainian army announced that it would extend basic training for new recruits from one month to one and a half.
Ukraine needs to rely more on technologies and weapons that help it attack the enemy from a distance, in order to save more of its own soldiers, Kovalenko stresses. In his opinion, increased financial incentives could also help.
While Ukrainian soldiers earn between 500 euros and less than 3,000 euros per month, new recruits in Russia receive up to 28,000 euros just for signing a contract.
"Russians do not believe in the myths about fighting the Nazis in Ukraine and fight only for money. If salaries were multiplied several times in the Ukrainian army, mobilization could also increase dramatically," Kovalenko suggested.
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