Ukraine should consider lowering the minimum age for military service to 18, a senior US administration official said on Wednesday, pressing Kiev to strengthen its fighting forces in the war against Russia.
In an interview with reporters, the official said Ukraine was not mobilizing or training enough new soldiers to replace those lost on the battlefield.
“The need at the moment is for personnel,” he said. “The Russians are indeed making progress, steady progress, in the east, and they are starting to push the Ukrainian lines at Kursk back…Mobilization and more personnel could make a significant difference at this point.”
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Russian forces are advancing into Ukraine at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion, seizing an area the size of half of London in the last month, according to analysts and war bloggers.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill to lower the mobilization age for call-up to combat from 27 to 25, increasing the number of civilians the Army could mobilize to fight under martial law, which has been in effect since the invasion of Russia in February 2022.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, but that support could wane when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Trump chose Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, to serve as special envoy for the conflict.
