Last week, Ukraine lowered its conscription age from 27 to 25. I boggles my mind that, with that country fighting for its existence, Ukrainians under the age of 27 could opt out of the struggle. It also boggled the mind of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former military chief. He lost his job after clashing with President Zelensky over the conscription-age issue.
In nearly all cases I’m aware of, foot soldiers in a war consist primarily of the young. But in this case, the young can stay home and leave the fighting to their older brothers, their uncles, and even their fathers ins some cases.
Russia, meanwhile, reportedly is conscripting everyone it can lay its minds. According to Zelensky, it is preparing to mobilize an additional 300,000 military personnel on June 1.
Ukraine’s downward revision of the conscription age, coupled with the elimination of some exemptions, is expected to increase its military by only about 50,000. Zelensky has said he needs to mobilize ten times that number, although he recently walked back that number.
Why won’t Ukraine conscript people in the 18-14 age range? I gather it’s because Zelensky believes doing so would make the war unpopular, and he along with it.
It’s understandable that the government wants to retain popular support for the war. But what it really needs is to make progress in the fight because without progress, there’s no hope of a satisfactory conclusion to the hostilities. And without progress, popular support will diminish, anyway.
These days, unfortunately, it’s the Russians who are making progress, albeit only slight progress so far.
Ukraine doesn’t just need more soldiers. It also needs more weapons and ammunition. Thanks to congressional Republicans, this assistance has not been forthcoming.
I’m disgusted by this. In fact, it makes me embarrassed to be a Republican.
At the same time, it’s fair to ask why the U.S. should aid a nation that won’t conscript its young population for fear that the war will lose the support of its people. Can such a nation continue to hold its own in the face of an enemy like Russia? Does it deserve our support?
I would answer the last question in the affirmative, but the case isn’t easy to make.
With Congress soon to take up the question of aiding Ukraine again, questions like the ones I asked above may have prompted Ukraine to lower the conscription age — that, along with the fact that Ukraine is no longer faring very well on the battlefield.
But with Ukraine’s survival as a nation at stake, shouldn’t its government lower the conscription age some more?