The US has repeatedly insisted that Kiev start mobilizing 18-year-olds
FILE PHOTO: A Ukrainian Army officer instructs replacement troops. © John Moore / Getty Images
There are no proposals to lower the mobilization age before the Ukrainian parliament or the relevant committees, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday in a denial of media reports to the contrary.
Several outlets in Kiev have reported that the 17th Brigade of the National Guard in Poltava was ready to start accepting 20-year-olds and that a bill to lower the draft age to 18 had been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.
“There are no bills to reduce the mobilization age from 25 to 18, either in the Verkhovna Rada or in our committee,” Alexander Zavitnevych, chair of the parliamentary committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said in a statement later in the day.
“We ask media representatives to be attentive to primary sources,” he added, noting that only the parliament is authorized to comment on any legislative activity.
Earlier media reports had quoted Sergey Lunych, supposedly a spokesman for the 17th Brigade, as the source for both claims. However, the brigade later said that Lunych was not a member of the unit’s command staff and is not authorized to speak on its behalf.
Kiev ramped up its mobilization campaign earlier this year, seeking to replace the heavy casualties suffered in the 2023 ‘counteroffensive’ against Russia. The parliament lowered the conscription age to 25 while enacting tougher penalties for draft evasion.
To enforce the new rules, press-gangs of recruiters have been snatching men off the street across Ukraine, while a recent measure reassigned some rear-area air defense troops to frontline infantry duty.
Former President Pyotr Poroshenko has criticized the mobilization campaign as “discredited and ineffective.” Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities have charged hundreds of people with aiding deserters and draft-dodgers.
The US has repeatedly pressed Kiev to lower the draft age to 18, but to no avail. Several Ukrainian outlets, as well as some Russian diplomats, have speculated that Vladimir Zelensky is keeping that move as a last-ditch bargaining chip.