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President Joe Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to help expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The official said “the pure math” of Ukraine's situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight.
The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia's February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months.
But with time running out, the Biden White House is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and now must dramatically increase its troop levels if it's going to stay in the fight with Russia.
The official said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the U.S. administration believes they probably will need more than that.
More than 1 million Ukrainians are now in uniform, including National Guard and other units.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also been hearing concerns from allies in other Western capitals that Ukraine has a troop level problem and not an arms problem, according to European officials who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic conversations.
The European allies have also stressed that the lack of depth means that it may soon become untenable for Ukraine to continue to operate in Russia’s Kursk border region that Ukraine seized this year. The situation in Kursk has become further complicated by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops who have come to help Moscow try to claw back the land.
The stepped-up push on Ukraine to strengthen its fighting ranks also comes as Ukraine braces for President-elect Donald Trump to take office on Jan. 20. The Republican said he would bring about a swift end to the war and has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the vital U.S. military support for Ukraine.
“There are no easy answers to Ukraine’s serious manpower shortage, but lowering the draft age would help,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "These are obviously difficult decisions for a government and society that has already endured so much due to Russia’s invasion.”
Ukraine has taken steps to broaden the pool of draft-eligible men, but the efforts have only scratched the surface against a much larger Russian military.
In April, Ukraine’s parliament passed a series of laws, including lowering its draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25, aimed at broadening the universe of men who could be called on to join the grinding war.
Those laws also did away with some draft exemptions and created an online registry for recruits. They were expected to add about 50,000 troops, far short of what Zelenskyy said at the time was needed.
Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine throughout the war. Russia’s own problems with adequate troop levels and planning early in the war prevented Moscow from taking full advantage of its edge. But the tide has shifted and the U.S. says the Ukrainian shortage can no longer be overlooked.
Some Ukrainians have expressed worry that further lowering the minimum conscription age and taking more young adults out of the workforce could backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy.
The official added that the administration believes that Ukraine can also optimize its current force by more aggressively dealing with soldiers who desert or go absent without leave.
Associated Press White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed reporting.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
66 Comments
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Hercolobus
The nail in the coffin of whose war this is. Fought in proxy.
Blacklabel
This is horrific. Can’t just end this proxy war instead of sending untrained kids to die?
Underworld
Blacklabel
It's not a proxy war.
JJE
Shocking stuff. This will be the nail the coffin in the country demographically, as their western sponsors effectively sentence it to death.
But it is understandable, if only for their sick motivation. They desperately want access to Ukraine's immense buried natural resources. Indeed, the country has been sold out to foreign private interests. And those interests want a return on their investment.
So, the carnage of now younger men means nothing to these vultures. This isn't a battle for "democracy": rather to exploit the resources, at the expense of Ukrainians.
Blacklabel
If it’s not a proxy war, how can Joe Biden tell Ukraine to decrease their draft age and continue the war?
does Ukraine tell any other country what wars they should continue and what their draft age should be?
Mr Kipling
It is true, the Biden administration really does want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. Too bad so many are leaving the country. They are even leaving the front lines and refusing to fight in what is now a pointless unwinnable war for Ukraine.
Underworld
Blacklabel
It's advice. That's all.
Underworld
JJE
Umm, I think you can blame Russia for that...
Blacklabel
is it just “advice” when you are receiving $100 billion in cash and resources from that same person and he just he wants to send you 25 billion more?
sounds like an order to me. The “must” and all.
Lord Dartmouth
Appalling. Roll on 20 January, when a real president will come in and make peace his first priority so that no more young men die in this absurd war.
Burgerland
Appalling. Roll on 20 January, when a real president will come in and make peace his first priority so that no more young men die in this absurd war.'
Exactly right. Disgraceful how the warmongers in Biden administration on their way out are telling grandpa to push Ukraine to draft teenagers. They want to sacrifice more young boys lives on the altar of US geopolitical interests. Easy to call for teenage draft when its other peoples children that do the fighting/ dying. As you say, Biden admin can' be gone soon enough.
bass4funk
I agree, this is just terrible.
Burgerland
It's advice. That's all.
A digraceful advice. Call for more Ukrainian teenagers to die for US geopolitical interests.
It's not a proxy war.
Yes, it is.
Underworld
Blacklabel
It's advice. That's all.
Yes.
the Biden White House is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and now must dramatically increase its troop levels if it's going to stay in the fight with Russia.
Must be a reading comprehension problem.
Burgerland
Yesterday the Economist reported 500, 000 UAF casualties - Biden admin warmongers want more apparently.
Up to half a million Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the ongoing conflict with Russia, according to new estimates provided by The Economist, which cited leaked intelligence reports, official statements and open sources. In an article published on Tuesday, the outlet noted that it is difficult to calculate Kiev’s actual losses, given that Ukrainian officials and their allies are “reluctant to provide estimates.”
Underworld
Burgerland
It's advice. That's all.
It's pragmatic. Ukraine has the choice to surrender or fight this war. They have chosen to fight and the US is letting them know that they will unlikely be successful unless they recruit more troops.
Ukraine don't have the luxury of getting North Korean troops to fight their war for them.
It's in Ukraine's geopolitical interests, as it is for all of Europe and the US not to have imperialists like Putin conducting wars of aggression in Europe.
Underworld
Burgerland
Biden isn't a warmonger, Putin is.
When Trump comes into office, he is going to need to provide security assurances, equivalent to NATO membership, to end this war.
Blacklabel
How can they train these kids for 6 weeks and then put them on the battlefield?
they don’t have 1-2 years to train them, right?
60 days, tops. Starting now and the kids haven’t even been drafted yet much less arrived for duty.
its reprehensible, immoral and criminal.
Fos
A clear signal from those powerful lobbies in Wall Street. When you have sent over $90 billions worth of lethal weapons, you can’t just stop right there. This is what the US administration is about: we have seen it time and time again: negotiate some sort of ceasefire somewhere to regroup (ME), and flare up tensions, keep the momentum, somewhere else. (Ukraine and Asia). World would be a much safer place without United States of America
JJE
There will be no NATO. Ukraine will be a truncated, demilitarized, denazified rump state west of the Dnieper that is strictly neutralist.
Kyiv could (and should) have abided by the Minsk Agreements. Now they have to pay the penalty for their infringements against public decency since 2014 in full with compound interest. This means being cut down to size.
Burgerland
Biden isn't a warmonger
He and his admin sure is. Thankfully the US public delivered the Trump landslide. Harris would have been a disaster for the world.
WoodyLee
"" President Joe Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18. ""
The Nobel Peace Prize Winer Pres. Biden and his team doing their best to bring peace to Ukraine.
WoodyLee
Dear Ukrainians of all fighting ages, Flee While You Can.
Your President along with his war mongers on both sides will get you killed one way or another.
This is not about defending your nation anymore. This is about fighting for Europe and NATO interests.
FizzBit
Yep!
Better yet, listen to Denethor II, the Steward of Gondor who put it more dramatically
"run for your lives!"
NATO and Zelensky are not Gandalf and Russia doesn't want to destroy or takeover Ukraine. No NATO in Ukraine, no war. Simple. It seems the US, EU, UK and NATO would prefer WW III rather than just relax their NATO expansion a little bit.
dutch
Nope. Subtext is this centuries old conflict has nothing to do with my country and not a single dollar should have been spent to prolong it for as long as it has.
I hear Ukraine is still encouraging foreigners to sign up and fight.
Do the honorable thing.
Tokyo Guy
Nope. Subtext is this centuries old conflict has nothing to do with my country and not a single dollar should have been spent to prolong it for as long as it has.
I assume then that you also believe that the US should not provide Israel with a single cent in assistance from this point on. Just for consistency, you know?
Pukey2
That's been the mantra. Get innocent people from another country to do your dirty work and die for your thirst for imperialism and hegemony. Ukraine had to resort to getting pregnant women to fight too. When is this madness going to stop. Just one in a number of proxy wars America has undertaken.
Tokyo Guy
I saw this posted here a while ago, and it's really quite prescient.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/xhfz2u/the_types_of_apologists_for_invasion_of_ukraine/
dutch
You assumed very wrongly.
Ukraine/Russia is a centuries-old conflict over a deep-water port for its navy, and the political realities of Russian speaking people within. It is a localized conflict that has nothing to do with the rest of the world other than the flunctuating prices of wheat and gas.
Israel's struggle against terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah is a struggle for its very survival as they want nothing less than the genocide of all Jews.
Hope that helps.
Underworld
FizzBit
Incorrect. Putin want's to take over Kyiv, Russify Ukraine and demilitarize Ukraine.
Incorrect. If Ukraine was in NATO, Russia wouldn't have invaded.
Nobody wants WWIII
NATO expansion is a force for peace. Estonia and Poland being part of NATO means that Russia is unlikely to invade those countries.
dutch
Also, it is good for the world that the region's only democracy is there to do the safeguarding of the values of freedom and liberty for all against the genocidal dark forces of Radical Islamic terror.. That is why Arab nations are silent. They support Israel.
dobre vam zajebava
Read between lines.
UA is done.
this time FOR GOOD.
mark my words.
JJE
Examine the main photo. Another person who went to Kursk, like the Germans before him. There are tens of thousands like him. It has turned into a bit of a trap. Easier to get in and sound the trumpet for the media blitz, than it is to leave or even extricate the scattered formations.
Safe bet right now the (already high) exodus of young people leaving the country, will accelerate. Being forcibly drafted with violence into Zelensky's army is a certain death sentence unless one surrenders. Hard to think of anything more disgraceful than dying for his corrupt regime.
WoodyLee
@ ditch
""Congratulations to all those who mindlessly supported this war.""
Many did at first, people supported Pres. Zelensky and was named a Hero back then, but the killing dragged on knowing that in the end this war like many all other will end at the negotiating table better now than later.
This killing machine must be stopped.
WoodyLee
@ dutch
""Congratulations to all those who mindlessly supported this war.""
Many did at first, people supported Pres. Zelensky and was named a Hero back then, but the killing dragged on knowing that in the end this war like many all other will end at the negotiating table better now than later.
This killing machine must be stopped.
Primusinter
On the photo accompanying the article. You are big fans of attending funerals. Each second article has such a photo. I even know what you will answer the question: what did the actor Petro Velykiy do on Russian soil, in the Kursk region? If he had surrendered there, he would have been put on trial as a trespasser, as a terrorist who came to kill Russian children. But all the same, it would be better to surrender, better for his family...
quercetum
Proxy war dems. You lose again. Sorry people getting Ukrainian youth to fight their war. This is a virtual video game for them.
Took them long enough to realize what was said a year and a half ago.
dobre vam zajebava
Its a proxy war
Its not a advice from Bidens administration but its an order.
It's nothing pragmatic. Ukraine has no choice but to start to talk about peace.Sooner-better.
There are many foreigners figthing against Russia at UA side.NATO instructors,mercenaries-you called them as you like.They are real people.Many of them are dead or sent back in body bags,some are captured,soeme even televised.
Biden is a warmonger, exact ecxample of one
When Trump comes into office, he is going to end this war.See other article here published.
Only pro-USA and western pundits support this war.Its crystal clear.
Corruption of Kiev junta is sky high.
Bidens administration clearly want to step up pressure on Russia and its allies and it may end by WW3.Its obvious.
NATO expansion is not a force for peace.
If anyone disagrees with me show me your points and arguments.Lets discuss instead of removing of comments for no reason.Behave as an educated adult not like other one.
FizzBit
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve $24 billion. Maybe he should ask Congress to pass a law that any who voted for him and Harris should be held accountable for their ignorance or ambivalence, and drafted in the Ukraine army.
dobre vam zajebava
read between lines.
a lot of money and weaponry sent from USA and west is ...lost somewhere.
Africa?
Kiev junta pockets?
highly likely.
Ukraine have zero chance to win.
NATO wunderwaffen made no change.
Kursk "success" did not make any change at all as well.
Media propaganda machine did not succeed as well.
Its obvious that UA must start to talk about peace.Cut money for them and force them to talk.Admit your failure and take own amount of responsibility for all of this.
quercetum
Dont worry. It won’t happen again in Asia with China around. It was too bad that it happened to the Koreans and the Vietnamese but China keeps things stable.
All you’re going to get is routine military exercises, water canons to cool you off and some bumper boats.
Learn to have to draw near peace 習近平。
Primusinter
Don't misinterpret it. Ukraine does not need to be Russified. 70% of the population speaks Russian perfectly. For 50 percent (if not 70%), Russian is the native language. Zelensky's native language is Russian! He speaks English and Ukrainian poorly. He goes to all negotiations abroad without an interpreter. What can he negotiate with his broken English??? But... There are simply no Ukrainian-English translators and vice versa!!! I can talk endlessly about this topic. And you, Underworld, don't understand anything about it.
JJE
Biden wants to take as many people to the grave with him as he can. He is literally doing his best to provoke WWIII right now. He has condemned Ukraine to basket-case syndrome. Should one, examine the demographics, it is an absolute shocker; killing what is left of the flower of their youth will consign it to oblivion. But the Biden Warmongers couldn't care less: they are obsessed about inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia (getting 'even' for the 2016 election) and exploiting the resources themselves.
Actually, as perverse as it sounds, Biden is probably not immediately to blame here. In between his deteriorating condition, senility and dementia, we don't actually know who is pulling the strings in what amounts to a rudderless government.
dobre vam zajebava
Don't misinterpret it. Ukraine does not need to be Russified. 70% of the population speaks Russian perfectly. For 50 percent (if not 70%), Russian is the native language. Zelensky's native language is Russian! He speaks English and Ukrainian poorly. He goes to all negotiations abroad without an interpreter. What can he negotiate with his broken English??? But... There are simply no Ukrainian-English translators and vice versa!!! I can talk endlessly about this topic. And you, Underworld, don't understand anything about it.
YES.Can agree fully till last dot.
dobre vam zajebava
Biden wants to take as many people to the grave with him as he can. He is literally doing his best to provoke WWIII right now. He has condemned Ukraine to basket-case syndrome. Should one, examine the demographics, it is an absolute shocker; killing what is left of the flower of their youth will consign it to oblivion. But the Biden Warmongers couldn't care less: they are obsessed about inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia (getting 'even' for the 2016 election) and exploiting the resources themselves.
Actually, as perverse as it sounds, Biden is probably not immediately to blame here. In between his deteriorating condition, senility and dementia, we don't actually know who is pulling the strings in what amounts to a rudderless government.
YES.Again can agree fully till last dot as well.
Burgerland
Note that most of the usual " fight until the last Ukrainian " Biden/Harris supporters are absent from this thread today. Even they realize that defending warmonger Biden administration call for more Ukrainian teenagers to die in an unwinnable conflict is an impossible task.
dobre vam zajebava
Note that most of the usual " fight until the last Ukrainian " Biden/Harris supporters are absent from this thread today. Even they realize that defending warmonger Biden administration call for more Ukrainian teenagers to die in an unwinnable conflict is an impossible task.
I saw same.If anyone here today would ask question if "Ukraine prevails" looks like that?drafting poor kids as kanonefuteren?Because if they are really winning and prevailing-they dont need to be forced to do so or to be "advised" from Bidens administration-right?
Some dude
This thread is a stunning example of how well the Russian propaganda machine has managed to convince so many Americans that Ukraine deserves to be destroyed.
It would be admirable were it not rooted in evil.
u_s__reamer
Calling for the deployment of teenagers into the pitiless meat grinder of the battlefield that he himself was careful to dodge during the wars against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, chicken-hawk Biden again reveals himself not to be the "good man" described by NYT shill, Thomas Friedman, but a monster whose psychopathy is plain to all with eyes to see.
dobre vam zajebava
This thread is a stunning example of how well the US/western propaganda machine has managed to convince so many Americans/westerners that Ukraine deserves to fight until last Ukrainian/to be destroyed.
Cant agree more...
Underworld
Primusinter
Putin want's to take over Kyiv, Russify Ukraine
What I do understand is that Putin wants Russian to be the only language used in Ukraine.
stormcrow
It seems like the big question is how much is this their (Ukraine) fight, or how much of this is our fight?
If Ukraine does end up making a peace deal with Russia by giving up a large portion of its country, then Ukraine should also be allowed to join NATO immediately,
Underworld
dobre vam zajebava
I think you forgot who started this war of aggression. It wasn't Biden. It was Putin.
Putin is the warmonger.
Putin is the imperialist.
Biden has nothing to do with the war except help Ukrainian by supplying arms from the US.
falseflagsteve
At this rate there will be a Zelensky Youth Brigade, young children on the front lines, used a cannon fodder whilst the West turns a blind eye.
GBR48
Don't brutalise, maim and kill your own youth in trench warfare as cannon fodder. Target the Russian government and Putin's circle with insurgents. They are responsible for the invasion. Ukraine should have gone after them from Day 1.
Primusinter
You misunderstand. And the most wrong thing is that you state your misunderstanding as an axiom. There are now three equal in rights languages in Crimea: Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. How do the liberated areas differ from Crimea? Another thing is that the population of the liberated areas of Donbass categorically refuses to speak Ukrainian. The teaching of the Ukrainian language for those who wish continues in all schools. But there are few willing ones. In all autonomous regions in Russia, the national language is developing as a regional one.
Burgerland
"This thread is a stunning example of how well the Russian propaganda machine has managed to convince so many Americans that Ukraine deserves to be destroyed."
This thread is an example of more and more people realizing they had been bamboozeled by warmongers in Biden admin that is prolonging this unwinnable ( for UAF ) conflict and even on its way out of the White House pushes Zelensky to sacrifice more Ukrainian teenagers for US geopolitical interests.
Underworld
stormcrow
Exactly!
Burgerland
*"What I do understand is that Putin wants Russian to be the only language used in Ukraine."*
Your understanding is misguided.
RichardPearce
Biden seems to be focused on one thing, making sure Trump and the Republicans 'eat' the loss for Obama's Folly the way Biden and the Democrats had to 'eat' the loss for Bush's invasion of Afghanistan.
dobre vam zajebava
"What I do understand is that Putin wants Russian to be the only language used in Ukraine."
Your understanding is misguided.
CORRECT.Kiev junta problem is that language and culture of all minorities/UA citizens are deprived.
Not just Russians.
Say Hungarains,Poles,Slovaks,Rumanians,Russyns...but guy who have never been in UA and taking own info from google only may have no clue about.
Antiquesaving
The constant western news about North Koreans is funny because we haven't seen a single one in combat and Ukraine releases plenty of propaganda videos of "battle successes" and if they had encountered a single North Korean, we would have seen it on every western MSM by now.
Putin has over 300,000 conscripts available, people ask why the Kremlin insists this isn't a "war" and call it a " special operation".
It is simple, under Russian law, conscripts can only be used in "War" so official declaration of war.
But if Russian territory is attacked this conscripts can be used within Russia proper.
So in theory Putin could use them in Kursk but he didn't and hasn't for multiple reasons.
Kursk has been a disaster for Ukraine, it sent its most elite and best equipped troops there and in the process lost fat more territory in Ukraine proper.
Russia has been toying with Ukraine in Kursk advancing taking back territory nearly encircling thousands of Ukrainian troops, then halting not finishing the job.
In response as expected, Ukraine sends in "rescue" in the form of more elite units taken from the southern regions leading to swift advances by Russia in those regions, then it is rise repeat, Russia launches offensives on the newly arrived elite units in Kursk before they have time to set up properly, create a new encirclement and wait for Ukraine to send help in the form of more troops taken from the frontlines in the south.
If Russian wanted it could send in 200,000 troops and up into Kursk but why would it, Kursk has been great helping lead to the end of the long stalemate in the south.
Sending in the conscripts would be bad publicity for Putin and he knows this.
And Ukraine drafting 18 year olds would be a bigger disaster and possibly lead to a new coup in Ukraine or at a minimum massive protests.
Ukraine has already lost a full generation, the average age of a soldier was 31 in June 2022 now it is 43 the generation 25~35 us gone, what next eliminate 18~25?
dobre vam zajebava
And Ukraine drafting 18 year olds would be a bigger disaster and possibly lead to a new coup in Ukraine or at a minimum massive protests.
Highly likely YES.
Ukraine has already lost a full generation, the average age of a soldier was 31 in June 2022 now it is 43 the generation 25~35 us gone, what next eliminate 18~25?
Befehl ist befehl.Till last Ukrainian.As Bidens administration wants.
JJE
Some people get things so back-to-front:
It is the Kyiv regime which has banned languages. And not the other way around.
dutch
Biden "ate the loss" for Afghanistan by pulling out almost all US forces before withdrawing personnel and equipment against the advice of all military leaders with at least half a brain.
13 service members paid with their lives for Biden's incompetence.
dutch
Who has said Ukraine "deserves to be destroyed"?
Just one name, please.
dobre vam zajebava
JJEToday 11:22 am JST
Some people get things so back-to-front:
It is the Kyiv regime which has banned languages. And not the other way around.
Reality is that Ukraine-as same as Russian federation-are countries where many nationalities lives.
Say in Ukraine-Russians,Poles,Hungarians,Romanians,Lemks,Russyns etc etc etc.
When all have started at Maidan in 2014-all UA govs have ruled out russian culture/language,TV,libraries,news,newspapers/ as same as they did to other nationalities as well.
Ein Reich-Ein Volk.
???
If we are talking about Russian federation itself-there are more than 100 nationalities living.All of them are Russian citizens,official country language is Russian .Similarity woth UA ends right here as there nationalities have as same cultural rights as Russians do.