War

Calls for lowering the mobilization age in Ukraine: what is behind them

The United States is calling on Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that Ukraine is not mobilizing and training enough new soldiers to take part in the war with Russia.

“The Russians are actually making progress, steady progress in the east, and they are starting to push back Ukrainian (troops – ed.) in Kursk. Mobilization and increase in the number of personnel can significantly affect the situation on the battlefield. We need manpower now,” he said.

Komersant asked political analyst Igor Reiterovich what such statements by the allied country mean for Ukraine.

The expert noted that this information is unofficial and was presented with reference to anonymous officials. However, if it appeared, it does indicate that such news stories have a clear purpose.

“The goal here, on the one hand, is to really force Ukraine to take these actions (lowering the mobilization age – ed.), because according to American officials and politicians responsible for the Russian-Ukrainian war, there is no other way to win the war. And Ukraine needs this, drawing parallels with the Vietnam War and World War II, when Americans, for example, also had to take unpopular actions in order to change the situation at the front,” Reiterowicz said.

But, according to the political scientist, it could also be a planned information operation. After all, calls to reduce the mobilization age for Ukrainians began to be heard after the US presidential election.

“That is, when Ukraine is sent some kind of veiled demands that Ukraine cannot fulfill, and then it will be used as an argument: “Well, look, we did everything we could on our own, you didn’t do everything you could on your own to the end. Let’s look for some other way out of the situation.” It seems to me that this version of the story deserves to exist the most, because it is so targetedly thrown into the information space. It may even be a kind of preparation for a compromise,” the political scientist said.

As a reminder, the Presidential Office responded to US calls to lower the mobilization age in Ukraine to 18 years. According to presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, there is no point in paying attention to such calls when the previously announced aid does not arrive on time.

“It makes no sense to hear calls for Ukraine to lower the mobilization age, allegedly in order to draft more people, when we see that the previously announced equipment is not arriving on time. Because of these delays, Ukraine lacks weapons for the already mobilized soldiers,” Lytvyn said.