Ukraine’s Zelensky Slams Biden Regime, Refuses To Lower Conscription Age From 25 to 18, Says Putin ‘Only Fears Trump’ | The Gateway Pundit
It’s 40 days until Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th US President.
In the meantime, lame duck Joe Biden is forking money to Kiev as fast as he can, and his regime officials are still ‘advising’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as if we were not about to see all the situation change with Trump’s arrival.
In fact, the insistence by Biden’s team on having Ukraine lower its mobilization age has pushed Zelensky into an unusually harsh response, in ‘one of the most open assaults on the outgoing president to date’.
US officials have been urging Kiev to conscript men as young as 18 to be sent to the front line.
According to them, manpower shortages are reaching a critical stage, with Russia making steady gains in eastern Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken went public with the issue during a NATO meeting:
The Telegraph reported:
“’Even with the money, even with the munitions, there have to be people on the front lines to deal with the Russian aggression’, [Blinken] told reporters. ‘But, for example, getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary. Right now, 18- to 25-year-olds are not in the fight’, he later added in an interview with Reuters.”
The current rules say men are to be conscripted into the Ukrainian army starting at age 25.
Mark Rutte, the new secretary-general of NATO:
“We have to make sure, obviously, also that enough people are available within Ukraine. We need, probably, more people to move to the front line.”
Read: Zelensky Calls for a Diplomatic Settlement to the War, Defends the Idea of Deploying Foreign Troops in Ukraine
Zelensky responded in public, with a blow aimed directly at Biden.
“’I told president Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China’, Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media. He also warned the Biden administration that ‘the priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia’s military potential, not Ukraine’s draft age’.”
For Kiev, mobilizing young men between from 18 years-old is out of the question.
“The age group makes up less than 10 per cent of Ukraine’s population, with around two million men making up that pool. In comparison, 25-54-year-olds constitute approximately 44 per cent of the 36.7 million population.”
Zelensky has lowered the age of conscription from 27 to 25 earlier this year.
Ryan Evans, War on the Rocks website:
“’Politics of this in Ukraine might be complicated but the necessity for more fighting men isn’t complicated. Effective infantry requires more young men, not more middle-aged men’, he said.”
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