US lawmakers pressuring Zelensky to lower mobilization age, Presidential Office advisor says
U.S. lawmakers from the Democratic and Republican parties are pressuring President Volodymyr Zelensky to further lower the age of mandatory military conscription, said Presidential Office advisor Serhii Leshchenko on Oct. 15.
Ukraine's parliament adopted an updated mobilization law in mid-April to ramp up mobilization amid Russia's ongoing war. The new law simplifies the process for identifying eligible conscripts and includes additional penalties for those dodging the draft.
Another law, signed by the president just before the mobilization law was passed, lowered the minimum age of compulsory military service from 27 to 25.
Leshchenko said that U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring Zelensky and continuing to ask why men aged 18-25 are not being mobilized.
"(The) Americans are hinting, Western weapons alone are not enough, we need mobilization from the age of 18."
The unnamed U.S. lawmakers have reportedly cited America's experience in the Vietnam War, when men aged 18-26 were drafted to fight. Some 2.2 million U.S. soldiers were conscripted to fight in the war through the selective service process.
Leshchenko said that Zelensky has thus far refused to budge on changing the conscription age, and has instead continued to press for the delivery of more U.S. military aid.
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.
Kateryna Hodunova
