Congressman and future national security advisor to the US president-elect Mike Waltz has spoken out in favor of lowering the mobilization age in Ukraine to 18 years old due to human resource problems.
He said this in an interview with ABC News.
According to him, the new administration will want to see “real stabilization of the front” and will therefore ask to lower the draft age from 25 to 18. Mike Waltz does not believe that “many people” realize that lowering the mobilization age will make it possible to train “hundreds of thousands of new fighters”.
He added that the Russian-Ukrainian war should end diplomatically, but it is not about expelling every Russian from Ukrainian land, in particular from Crimea — he called this a reality.
What preceded
The current administration of the US President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for lowering the age of mobilization. US President Joe Bidenʼs advisor Jake Sullivan said that there is no weapon that could change the course of the war. Instead, Ukraine needs to "increase the number of troops on the front lines" to strengthen its position. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also said that Ukraine must make "tough decisions" regarding further mobilization.
The Office of the President of Ukraine responded that such calls “make no sense” at a time when the previously announced aid is not arriving on time. President Volodymyr Zelensky, during the presentation of the internal Resilience Plan, emphasized that there will be no reduction in the mobilization age in Ukraine.
In December 2024, the US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that if Ukraine lowered the military draft age, the US would provide all recruits with full equipment. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a reduction in Russiaʼs military capabilities.
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