Under new amendments, younger men will be given financial and other incentives to sign contracts with the military, Nikolay Schur has said
The office of the Ukrainian president will propose amendments in the coming days that offer incentives for males between the age of 18 and 25 to sign voluntary contracts with the armed forces, an adviser to the office’s military department, Nikolay Schur, has told local media.
Men in that age range are currently not subject to mandatory mobilization under Ukrainian law. The prospect of further tightening of draft laws has become a source of significant controversy in Ukrainian society.
According to the adviser, “a whole range of amendments” to existing legislation and presidential decrees have been prepared by a working group that includes representatives of the Defense Ministry, General Staff and public organizations.
“Technical details are being agreed upon at the moment and some things may still change,” he said.
The amendments are expected to be presented to the public “in the coming days,” Schur added.
Last spring, faced with manpower shortages, mounting losses, and military setbacks, Ukraine lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and significantly tightened mobilization rules. Since then, numerous videos have appeared on social media showing Ukrainian conscription officers chasing potential recruits in the streets, brawling with them and subjecting them to abuse. Reports of the mobilization growing increasingly violent and lawless have appeared not only in the local media but also in the West.
The previous US administration of President Joe Biden had reportedly been pressuring Ukraine to reduce the mobilization age to 18. Kiev resisted those attempts, with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claiming in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week that what the Ukrainian military needs is not more men, but more weapons from its Western backers for the troops that it already has.
New US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed a willingness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Many Western officials, including Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, have been actively pushing for Ukraine to lower the draft age, arguing that the country is fighting for its survival and needs more people at the front.
Putin and other Russian officials have on numerous occasions blamed the US and its allies of willing to “fight Russia until the last Ukrainian” in their attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow.
