Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The new mobilization law came into force a day after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed it last year.
It was not immediately clear why Zelenskyy took so long to sign the measure into law. He didn’t make any public comment about it, and officials did not say how many new soldiers the country expected to gain or for which units.
Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine for many months amid a growing shortage of infantry on top of a severe ammunition shortfall that has handed Russia the battlefield initiative. Russia’s own problems with manpower and planning have so far prevented it from taking full advantage of its edge.
If you’re angry at Ukraine, you aren’t looking or thinking deeply enough. This is only happening because Russia is trying to conquer Ukraine with their own conscripted soldiers. All of this ends when Russia stops their invasion.
You want the deaths to stop? Tell Putin to fuck himself with a rusty cactus and withdraw.
Who’s angry at Ukraine?
Putin is, for some very bizarre reason of his own. That’s about it I think.
Remember when Wagner Group accidentally found out they had wide open roads all the way to Moscow from Ukraine? That’s what Ukraine is to Putin. Along with natural gas and some other economic factors. None of it inscrutable.
I was surprised the age wasn’t lower to begin with. I was expecting it’d be 18.
That’s because both Ukraine and Russia are about to have a generation that is much smaller in numbers due to the lingering effects of WW2. Especially Ukraine is hesitant of throwing that generation into the meat grinder of war and it is speculated that this was one of the factors regarding the timing of this war, because in a way it was now or never for Russia.
Interesring that it’s already so high, don’t most countries have conscription at 18?
Few countries have demographics so fucked up as Ukraine. It’s the same “WWII generation can’t have kids on account of being dead” and “everyone got scared of their future prospects when the USSR fell and people are too well-educated to bring kids into an uncertain future” double-dip that also Russia suffers from, though Ukraine has an even lower fertility rate, 1.16 vs. 1.49, and overall that wasp waist is way more pronounced, here’s Russia. Ukraine is also losing plenty of working population to the EU, has way before people began to flee the invasion. The drain is on well-educated people, people coming to the EU as seasonal workers in agriculture etc. rather funnel money back to Ukraine.
The situation would be a catastrophe of Korean proportions if Ukrainians managed to be as in denial about the situation as Koreans are, but they’re not. It’s still severely fucked, though1.
The size of the cohorts that now got added is in comparison tiny, as you see, and I’d be surprised if they’re sending them to the front. It’s going to be training in all that newfangled western stuff and stand-off warfare for them, not the trenches.
1 I can’t help but ask: It is said that one of the main cultural differences between Germany and Austria is that in Germany, bad situations are serious but not hopeless while in Austria they’re hopeless, but not serious. What’s Ukraine’s take?
Was curious how the US stacked up and wow, that’s a huge difference! Interesting to see the Boomer Hershey’s Kiss shape at the top.
This is rough, I can’t even imagine the situation. We need to give Ukraine absolutely everything they need to win this war as quickly as possible with the least amount of casualties possible. Shame on those playing politics with this.
You mean the conservative republicans within the US government? Might as well name and shame here.
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-republicans-shameful-blocking-ukraine-aid-australia-tony-abbott/
Yeah, anything less than pointing the finger at the one side actually causing issues is just mealy mouthed both sides bullshit.
Our goal should be to give Ukraine triple what they need. Absolutely overwhelming power to drive Russia back and burn a few miles of its territory to the ground.
Long term, this minimizes loss of life. But we gotta think long term. The question should be “what will keep Russia from doing this again for a hundred years?”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine for many months amid a growing shortage of infantry on top of a severe ammunition shortfall that has handed Russia the battlefield initiative.
Some Ukrainians worry that taking young adults out of the workforce will backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy, but the problem reportedly has become acute as Kyiv girds for an expected summer offensive by the Kremlin’s forces.
Russia’s population is more than three times as large as Ukraine’s, and President Vladimir Putin has shown a willingness to force men to the front if not enough volunteer.
The need for a broad mobilization to beef up the number of Ukrainian troops reportedly was one of the areas of disagreement between Zelenskyy and Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the popular commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces whom the president replaced in February.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, “sees daily humiliation and pain” from unrelenting Russian aerial attacks.
Russian attacks all across the country are “wreaking havoc,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in an appeal for Ukraine’s Western partners to supply more air defense systems.
The original article contains 619 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
What happened to ‘war over in 2 weeks?’ The worlds largest military and all of Europe providing weapons and its gone nowhere, except into the pockets of war hawks. At this point it should be considered a long con
Armed resistance against a former colonizer trying to reassert colonial power is never a long con.
What happened to ‘war over in 2 weeks?’
Who said that , when, and why do you care?
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It is absolutely a long con.
I feel bad for the Ukrainian cannon fodder that actually believed they had a chance.
Their purpose was to weaken Russia and strengthen profits for the Western MIC.
I almost went over there and fought Russia. I’m really glad I didn’t now.
I suspect I will be fighting Russia or its allies within a few years anyway, and I’d much rather be wearing the uniform of my own country.
Go all in and lower it to 16
I suppose you would prefer Kyiv to be a provincial capital of Russia?
