Ben Wallace has argued that Vladimir Zelensky should have conscripted everyone 18 and older and sent them to be trained in Europe
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky should have introduced mass conscription and mobilized all men and women without sparing the younger generation, former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said.
Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Zelensky declared martial law and a general mobilization. However, due to heavy losses on the battlefield and a shortage of troops, Kiev later passed a number of new conscription laws, toughened penalties for draft evasion, started recruiting prisoners, and lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 and in a bid to refill the ranks of the military.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian army has continued to experience shortages, prompting Kiev’s Western backers, primarily the US, to pressure the Ukrainian government to lower the conscription age to 18 and up.
Speaking on ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast earlier this week, Wallace, who served as the UK’s defense minister from 2019 to 2023, argued that Zelensky should have called up all men and women from the start.
“I’ve always had a question for Zelensky: Why didn’t you mobilize your people? In 1939, we mobilized the men. And in 1940, we passed the Women in War Act. We mobilized the women,” Wallace said, referring to Britain’s conscription policies during World War II.
“Zelensky took a view that he was going to preserve the 18 to 28-year-olds, so it’s not a mass conscription,” the former defense minister said, arguing that instead, the Ukrainian leader should have mobilized everyone and “asked Europe to train them because that is not a hard ask.”
After that, Wallace argued, that Ukrainians could have returned home and “put their helmets under the bed… and go back to work” to be called up when they are needed.
The US has also pressured Kiev to lower the draft age to 18, but so far to no avail. Several Ukrainian outlets, as well as some Russian diplomats, have speculated that Zelensky is keeping that move as a last-ditch bargaining chip.
Moscow believes that the conflict is a Western-led proxy war against Russia, which the West intends to wage “to the last Ukrainian.” Last month, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said Ukraine has lost 1 million servicemembers to death and injury since February 2022, with more than half of that number coming in 2024 alone.
