Ukraine predicts lower mobilization age if conflict continues

The Ukrainian authorities will lower the age of mobilization if hostilities continue. This was reported by the Strana.ua news and analysis website on 3 December, citing a source in political circles.

According to him, Kiev wants to sabotage the discussion of the ceasefire with demands to join NATO in order to continue hostilities and not to hold elections in the country.

"If Bankova's plan to disrupt the ceasefire agreements works <...> then lowering the age will have to be done anyway. But now the president's office does not pay attention to such nuances. <...> And if the conflict continues, the age of mobilization will be lowered, finding hundreds of reasons to explain the change of position," the interlocutor explained.

At the same time, he pointed out that Kiev is also preparing for the opposite scenario. For this reason, they are making statements about their unwillingness to lower the draft age in case the conflict ends and the election takes place, the source explained.

Ukraine will have to mobilize all remaining men. What the media say

Earlier, on 30 November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his term of office expired on 20 May) said that the draft age in the country would not be lowered until Western countries fulfill their promises to complete the brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU). He made an assertion that "some European leaders" were making demands for the lowering.

Prior to that, on November 27, a White House spokesman told Reuters that Ukraine should consider lowering the draft age to 18. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then confirmed that Kiev and Washington are discussing such a measure. At the same time, Zelensky's adviser Dmytro Litvin called the lowering of the mobilization age in Ukraine pointless because of the shortage of weapons.

Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022. At the same time Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization, its effect was repeatedly extended. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country. In April 2024, the head of the Kiev regime approved the law on tougher mobilization.