If Ukraine lowers mobilisation age to 18, US ready to equip all recruits - State Department
If the age of mobilisation in Ukraine is lowered to 18, the United States and its allies are ready to provide equipment to Ukrainian recruits.
This was stated by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller during a briefing, Censor.NET reports.
According to him, the US side discussed the situation in the east with Kyiv, but it is Ukraine that must decide on the number and composition of the Armed Forces:
We have made it clear that if they provide additional forces to fight, we and our allies will be ready to equip and train those forces," Miller said.
What preceded it?
Earlier, a senior official told the media that the administration of current US President Joe Biden is calling on Ukraine to immediately increase the size of its armed forces by drafting more soldiers and revising its mobilisation law to allow people aged 18 and older to be drafted.
On 19 November, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Ukraine should increase mobilisation to improve the situation at the front. However, no single weapons system is decisive in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is indeed discussing mobilisation and lowering the mobilisation age in talks with its Western partners, but the problem is the delay in the promised supply of the necessary weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Ukraine must make difficult decisions about further mobilisation.
The WP noted that despite the acceleration of the supply of necessary weapons to Ukraine, the administration of current US President Joe Biden is growing frustrated with the refusal of Ukrainian leaders to lower the conscription age from 25 to 18.
