Ukraine calls for lowering conscription age to 18; US sends Kiev more weapons | War news between Russia and Ukraine

Kiev is not mobilizing or training enough new soldiers, a senior US official says, as Russia makes major progress in Ukraine.

Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service to 18, a US official has said, as the outgoing White House administration is reportedly preparing a new arms package to strengthen Kiev before President Joe Biden in January leaves office.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, an unnamed senior US official said Ukraine should consider lowering the age for military service from 25 to 18 because the country was not mobilizing or training enough new soldiers to replace those killed.

“The need right now is manpower,” the senior Biden administration official said.

“The Russians are in fact making steady progress in the east, and they are beginning to push back the Ukrainian lines in Kursk… Mobilization and more manpower could make a significant difference right now, looking at today’s battlefield.”

The official also said that the Ukrainian armed forces now have “healthy supplies of the essential tools, ammunition and weapons they need to succeed on the battlefield.”

“(But) without a pipeline of new troops, existing units, fighting heroically on the front lines, cannot rest, re-equip, train and re-equip,” he said.

However, a source in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office told Reuters news agency that Ukraine does not have the resources to equip current troops.

“Right now, with our current mobilization efforts, we do not have sufficient equipment, for example armored vehicles, to support all the forces we call on,” the source said.

Kiev, he added, would not “compensate for the delays of our partners in decision-making and supply chains with the lives of our soldiers and the youngest of our boys.”

In April, Zelenskyy already used martial law lower the military mobilization age for combat duty from 27 to 25, which has been in effect since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The call from some in the US for increased recruitment in Ukraine comes as President Biden is reportedly preparing a $725 million arms package for Ukraine ahead of its handover to newly elected President Donald Trump in January.

Reuters, citing an official familiar with the plan, said the Biden administration plans to push through a weapons package with a variety of weapons – including anti-tank mines, drones, Stinger missiles, cluster munitions and ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems ( HIMARS).

According to the US official, formal notification to Congress on the arms package could take place as early as Monday, although the exact contents and size of the package could change.

There is plenty of uncertainty about the effect a Trump presidency could have on Ukraine’s war effort. He previously criticized the level of Western aid to Kiev and hinted in June that he would cut military aid if elected.

On Wednesday, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told the UN Security Council that any decision by the Trump administration to reduce aid would be a “death sentence” for the Ukrainian military.

Analysts and war bloggers have said Russian forces in Ukraine are advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the invasion, capturing an area half the size of London in the past month.

Quickly ending the war in Ukraine was one of Trump’s central election campaign promises, but he has failed to provide firm details on how he plans to achieve this.

Trump on Wednesday named Keith Kellogg as his new special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The retired lieutenant general has presented Trump with a plan to end the war that would involve freezing the battle lines at their current locations and forcing Kiev and Moscow to the negotiating table.

Zelensky has warned that any ceasefire talks without security guarantees from Western partners will only benefit Moscow.