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Kyiv under pressure: should the minimum age for military service be lowered?
The US is urging Ukraine to lower the minimum age for military service to 18 as a new arms package is imminent.
Kyiv under pressure: should the minimum age for military service be lowered?
In a dramatic appeal, a high-ranking US official asked Ukraine to reduce the minimum age for military service from 25 to 18 years. This is done at a critical time when Russia makes significant progress in the east of Ukraine and the Ukrainian lines in Kursk push back. The official emphasized that Ukraine urgently had to mobilize new soldiers to compensate for the losses on the front.
"The need for manpower is now crucial," said the US official. "Without new troops, the existing units that fight bravely cannot rotate, to rest and revolve it." Despite the "healthy stocks" of weapons and ammunition that the Ukrainian armed forces have, the challenge of recruiting and equipping sufficiently trained soldiers remains. An insider in President Wolodymyr Selenskyj's office pointed out that Ukraine does not have the resources to adequately support the current troops.
U.S. arms package for Ukraine
Uncertainty about future U.S. support for Ukraine is growing as Trump has criticized the level of Western aid in the past. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy warned that a Trump administration cut in support for the Ukrainian army would be a "death sentence." Meanwhile, analysts have reported that Russian forces have made territorial gains in recent weeks on a scale not seen since the early days of the invasion.