Ukraine needs to lower mobilization age for frontline stabilization - Trump's advisor
Mobilization in Ukraine (illustrative photo: Getty Images)
According to the statement of Trump's future National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, US President-elect Donald Trump's team believes that to stabilize the frontline in Ukraine, the age of mobilization should be lowered. This would allow “hundreds of thousands of new soldiers” to be drafted into the army, ABC News reports.
“Another thing we will need to see is stabilization on the battlefield. And one of the things we'll be asking of the Ukrainians is they're having manpower issues. Their draft age is now 26 years old, not 18, I don't think a lot of people realize that. They can generate hundreds of thousands of new soldiers,” said the future Trump adviser.
Waltz emphasized that any negotiations will require this stabilization on the frontline, and for this, in his opinion, new aid and weapons packages are not enough, but an increase in the number of soldiers on the Ukrainian side is also needed.
At the same time, he added that Trump's team has heard about the problems with morale and the problems on the front line.
"Listen, if Ukrainians are asking the entire world to be all in for democracy, we need them to be," Waltz summarized.
The US wants to lower the mobilization threshold in Ukraine
The administration of the current US President Joe Biden has also repeatedly called on Ukraine to lower the mobilization age. Currently, Ukraine has a draft age of 25. This happened after the threshold for mobilization was lowered from 27 years old.
However, the Ukrainian leadership, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, does not support this idea. According to him, Ukraine does not receive enough weapons from its partners to take such a step.
“Please tell me, if a person stands before you without a weapon, does it matter whether they are 20 or 30 years old? There is no difference. Our partners focus on the physical capabilities of a particular soldier, while we are focused on the fact that we have brigades with no equipment,” the president said.
