Ukraine has lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The new laws, which will also do away with some draft exemptions and create an online registry for recruits, might add around 50,000 troops to the military, said Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst with the Center for United Actions, a government watchdog in Kyiv.
That would be a tenth of the 500,000 additional troops that Zelenskyy said in December that the military wanted to mobilize. But after signing a security agreement with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said an audit requested by Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief determined that the 500,000 figure was wrong, partly because existing troops could be sent from the rear to the front. He didn’t say why that option wasn’t considered previously.
Zelenskiy also separately signed a second bill requiring men who were given military waivers on disability grounds to undergo another medical assessment, another measure that could help the military draft more fighters.
A token amount of cannon fodder.
This article doesn’t seem to mention it, but the Guardian one also states that they’re reevaluating all of the people previously given disability exemptions: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/ukraine-military-draft-age-law