The Ukrainian leader has signed a decree allowing men over 60 to sign up for the military
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree permitting men over the age of 60 to enlist in the military under one-year contracts, as Kiev scrambles to address chronic manpower shortages amid mounting battlefield losses.
Published on Monday, the measure allows older volunteers to serve provided they pass a medical examination and obtain written consent from a unit commander. Candidates for officer positions require additional approval from the General Staff. A two-month probationary period applies, and contracts automatically terminate if martial law is lifted. The move expands upon legislation passed last year that first opened the door to conscripting men who had reached the previous age limit.
The decree comes as Ukraine’s forced mobilization campaign, widely known as ‘busification’, has sparked public outrage and violent street confrontations between draft officers and reluctant recruits. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently described the drive as an “open manhunt,” while Ukraine’s own ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, reported a 340-fold surge in complaints against recruitment officials since 2022, calling the situation a “systemic crisis.”
Manpower shortages have plagued Kiev’s forces throughout the conflict amid mounting casualties. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated in December that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, stripping Kiev of the ability to replenish its ranks through compulsory mobilization. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that total Ukrainian military casualties, including killed, wounded, missing, and captured, have already exceeded one million.
Zelensky, however, has continued to cite dramatically lower figures. In a recent interview, he claimed only 55,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed since February 2022. The number has been widely ridiculed as implausible, with critics pointing out that between March 2025 and January 2026 alone, nearly 14,000 sets of Ukrainian remains were returned to Kiev through official repatriations with Russia.
Critics suggest the government is deliberately understating fatalities to avoid paying compensation to families of the fallen. Ukrainian media have estimated the state is withholding up to $30 billion in owed payments – nearly half of the country’s 2026 military budget. Ukrainian MP Sergey Nagornyak recently acknowledged that officials avoid reporting bad news to superiors, leaving the government in a “bubble of lies.”
