U.S. Urging Ukraine to Reduce Draft Age Amid War With Russia, Moscow Intel Claims
Ukraine has been locked in a war with Russia for nearly two years, and while the West can provide weapons, Kyiv needs to find bodies to carry them
The U.S., along with the UK, have urged Ukrainian leadership to lower the country’s draft age to 17 and expand it to 70 to “make up for the huge losses” suffered during the failed spring counteroffensive, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said.
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S.E. Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s intelligence service, cited “reliable data,” and Russia compared any move to lower the draft age to Germany in WWII.
“If this happens, the Kiev regime will confirm its Nazi essence by sending seventeen-year-old boys into the heat of war to prolong the agony of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This will be very reminiscent of the actions of the top of Nazi Germany to create the Volkssturm Nazi people's militia in the fall of 1944, within which the Hitler Youth units were formed from children,” the statement read.
The Trends Journal reached out to the State Department for comment.
Ukraine has banned anyone from 18 to 60 years old from leaving the country.