By 1945, Adolf Hitler had begun conscripting 14-year-old Hitler Youth regiments into the army. He also drafted members of the Home Army who were in their 60s and 70s. It was all Germany had left to fight with after losing millions of men.
Ukraine is not in as bad a condition as that. But proportionately, Ukraine has lost as much as Russia and perhaps more.
Russia may have lost as many as 315,000 killed and wounded since February 2022, while Ukraine's losses have been pegged at 120,000. The initial Russian invasion force was about 300,000 U.S. intelligence estimates, while Ukraine deployed around 200,000 against them.
The war drags on with no end in sight. Russia has just called up another 300,000 troops who will be in the field by June 1, according to U.S. intelligence. This has forced Ukraine to respond.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently signed three conscription laws lowering the draft age from 27 to 25 and eliminating several exemptions. The new legislation should bring in another 50,000 recruits, says Ukraine.
Zelenskyy refuses to say publicly how many recruits the Ukrainian army will need.
“I can say that Russia is preparing to mobilize an additional 300,000 military personnel on June 1,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
The average age of a front-line soldier is 40, according to the Associated Press. For both sides, that's the way their armies are structured. Young men are much more valuable working in factories and other war production jobs than carrying a rifle.
“I have just one son, I am a single mother,” said Antonina Piliuhina, the 49-year-old Kyiv mother of a 21-year-old son. “What did I raise him for all these years, for him to be taken away and then killed by someone for fun? I don’t need this.”
That's been the cry of mothers across the centuries as young men are sent to die in wars that old men start.
Zabolotna, the government watchdog analyst, said even though there are about half a million men ages 25 to 27, she estimates only about 50,000 would be added to the ranks.
“Some of them are unfit for service, some have left, some are (in the) reserve or have the right to deferment,” she said.
The law’s introduction is a signal that Ukraine is facing up to the reality that it’s in a war of attrition and of competition for resources, said Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine forum and deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Chatham House think tank in London.
Zelenskyy is refusing to accept the reality that he's in a war he cannot win unless America and NATO enter the war to save him. Biden knows this and has yet to put the screws on Zelenskyy to bring him to the negotiating table. He might condition this next tranche of $61 billion in aid on Zelenskyy opening negotiations.
But that would require a political courage that neither Zelenskyy nor Biden has.
The initial enthusiasm for going out to fight against the Kremlin’s forces has waned, though public support for the war remains high.
Ukraine currently forbids men younger than 60 from traveling abroad. Many Ukrainian men are evading the draft by hiding at home or trying to bribe their way out of the battle. Commanders say they don’t have enough soldiers to launch offensives, and barely enough to hold positions during intensifying Russian assaults.
Russia’s population is more than three times the size of Ukraine’s, and President Vladimir Putin has shown a willingness to force men to the front if not enough volunteer.
NATO is marking its 75th anniversary on Thursday. “I didn’t want to spoil the birthday party for NATO, but I felt compelled to deliver a sobering message on behalf of Ukrainians about the state of Russian air attacks on my country, destroying our energy system, our economy, killing civilians,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, The minister attended a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council, set up two years ago in response to the Russian invasion.
Even with the $61 billion U.S. dollars that will eventually be sent to Ukraine, Russia's attacks will continue. And by the end of the year, Ukraine is going to need another huge tranche of funds to resist Moscow as the Russians show no sign of quitting.
