US urges Ukraine to lower draft age to 18 amid troop shortage, AP reports

The Biden administration is urging Ukraine to lower its draft age from 25 to 18 in an effort to increase troop numbers, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 27, citing an unnamed senior Biden administration official.

The recommendation is part of a broader push to address Ukraine's armed forces personnel shortage as the war with Russia nears its third year.

“The pure math of Ukraine’s situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight,” the official said to AP, adding that Ukraine is not currently mobilizing enough soldiers to replace battlefield losses or match Russia’s growing military.

The proposal has faced resistance from Kyiv, with Ukrainian officials expressing concerns about the lack of equipment for additional troops and potential economic harm from drafting younger workers.

European officials, speaking anonymously, have suggested that Western allies believe Ukraine's primary issue is a shortage of troops rather than weapons, raising concerns about its ability to sustain operations in Russia’s Kursk border region.

The situation has been further complicated by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops supporting Moscow's efforts to reclaim territory lost to a Ukrainian incursion earlier this year.

In April, Ukraine passed laws lowering the draft age from 27 to 25, which added 50,000 troops but fell short of the country's needs.

After the new law on mobilization came into force in Ukraine on May 18, military-aged men were given 60 days to update their personal data so that the state could locate them. The deadline for updating data expired on July 17, 2024.

From May 18 to July 16, 4,690,496 military-aged men updated their data by the July 17 deadline, according to the Defense Ministry.

Parliament passes bill allowing first-time deserters to return to military service

The contracts of these soldiers will continue to be valid if they decide to return to their units.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek