Zelenskyy on lowering mobilization age: "Why? To make more people unarmed?"
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on the US desire to lower the conscription age in Ukraine.
He said this in an interview with Bloomberg, Censor.NET reports.
"As officials in Washington and Kyiv begin to work out the details of how they can bring Putin to the table and what the structure of the deal should look like, a clear divide is emerging over Ukraine's willingness to mobilize additional troops," the agency writes.
Officials from the United States and other Western allies are calling on Ukraine to lower the conscription age, while Zelenskyy insists that he needs more weapons and missiles than more soldiers.
Why mobilize even more young people? To have even more people without weapons?" he emphasized.
Zelenskyy also warned that the lack of long-term support for Ukraine from Western allies could give Putin a chance to use the truce to restore military power and prepare for a new offensive.
"Ending the war should be Trump's victory, not Putin's. Putin is nothing to him," the head of state added.
What preceded it?
Earlier, the State Department stated that if the mobilization age in Ukraine is lowered to 18, the United States and its allies are ready to provide equipment to Ukrainian conscripts.
US President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that Ukraine would have to decide to lower the mobilization age to 18, but that it was Kyiv's sovereign decision.
Also, Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump, said that Ukraine faces a serious shortage of human resources because the conscription age is not 18.
