Zelenskyy on age of mobilisation: If a person is unarmed, what difference does it make if they are 20 or 30?

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commenting on the discussion of a possible reduction of the conscription age, noted that it is now more urgent to provide the army with weapons and training from the West [as of now, the conscription age in Ukraine is 25 – ed.].

Source: He said this at a press conference in Brussels, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Asked to comment on discussions in the West about lowering the age of conscription to 18, the president said: "Please tell me, if a person is standing in front of you without a weapon, what difference does it make if that person is 20 years old or 30? There is no difference."

Quote: "That is, our partners pay attention to the physical capabilities of a particular soldier. And I pay attention to the fact that we have ‘naked’ [unarmed] brigades... We have enough different brigades: there are strong brigades, and there are brigades that are not equipped, especially with weapons," he added.

The head of state went on to say that he considers the demands in the West to lower the age of conscription "not very fair", citing problems with the training of Ukrainian brigades abroad as an example.

"When we talked about training 14 brigades, at least 12 brigades abroad... and today we have one brigade that was trained in France, and one that is being additionally trained in Germany by the United States, by the way," he said.

At the same time, Zelenskyy acknowledged that "there are always not enough people," citing another argument – the technological nature of the current war in Ukraine.

"Modern technologies – missiles, drones, long-range capabilities, air defence – are all very important things. How can you move forward if drones are falling from the skies and you don't control the skies? That is, we lack air defence and the number of F-16s in our skies is still too small,"  the head of state said.

Background:

• In recent weeks, the United States has been making public and private calls for Ukraine to lower the age of conscription to 18, arguing that the shortage of personnel at the front is becoming critical and that this is why Russia is able to make advances in the east.
• According to media reports, the disputes over the number of mobilisation and the age of mobilisation have led to tensions between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States.

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