West may urge Ukraine to recruit soldiers up to 70 years old

Russia's intelligence chief says the West is urging Ukraine to expand the conscription age from the current 18-60 to 17-70 years old.

"The West is demanding that the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky show the international community that Moscow cannot win the conflict, no matter how heavy Kiev's losses are," the SVR press service said on November 20.

Russian intelligence claims to have data showing that the US and UK advised Ukraine's leaders to reduce the minimum age for men to 17 and raise the maximum age to 70, and to mobilize more women into the army.

SVR added that Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also proposed that parliament study the possibility of lowering the minimum age for military service. "The pain of the Ukrainian armed forces will only be prolonged if this really happens," Naryshkin said.

Ukrainian, US and British officials have not commented on the information.

Ukrainian soldiers conduct combat training in Zaporizhzhia province on November 13. Photo: Reuters — Ukrainian soldiers conduct combat training in Zaporizhzhia province on November 13. Photo: *Reuters*

President Zelensky declared martial law on February 24, 2022, the day Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine. A day later, he signed a decree on general mobilization, banning Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.

Ukraine has not disclosed its casualties in the conflict. According to US and European estimates, Kiev and Moscow have suffered more than 100,000 casualties each. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced in late October that more than 90,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded in less than five months of counter-offensive.

This has severely depleted the Ukrainian military’s manpower, forcing recruitment offices to call up older recruits. The average age of Ukrainian soldiers is now 43. “They are old and not healthy anymore,” said a close aide to Mr. Zelensky.

This is a far cry from the initial outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, when the Ukrainian military’s Territorial Defense Force announced it had recruited 100,000 new recruits in the first 10 days of hostilities. The mobilization was fueled by optimistic predictions from Ukrainian officials that they would “win the war within weeks or months.”

But Ukraine’s recruitment pace has slowed after nearly two years of war, despite a strict draft policy. Many people share stories of officers plucking men off buses or trains and sending them to the front, or of those with the means to bribe military recruiters to avoid being drafted.

Vu Anh (According to RIA Novosti, Times )

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