Ukrainian troops are firing artillery near Bakhmut, eastern Donetsk Oblast, in May last year. AP Yonhap News
Reuters reported on the 27th (local time) that the U.S. Joe Biden administration urged Ukraine to lower the conscription age to expand its military forces.
The news agency quoted an unnamed senior Biden administration official as saying that the U.S. government wants to lower the conscription age from 25 to 18 in order to expand the size of Ukraine’s combat troops.
This senior official said, “Russia is actually making steady progress on the eastern front, and has begun to push back Ukraine’s front lines from Kursk (Russian territory that Ukraine has invaded),” and added, “What (Ukraine) needs now is manpower.” Reuters said to
The Associated Press reported that White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Sean Sabet said the United States would continue to provide weapons to Ukraine until the end of the Biden administration’s term on January 20 next year, but pointed out that “the most urgent need is manpower.” Some officials mentioned the need for replacement troops due to losses.
In a situation where North Korea is believed to have dispatched more than 11,000 troops to support Russia and deployed them to Kursk, the biggest battle site, it is interpreted that Ukraine also needs to take special measures. Recently, Russia has been expanding its territory of occupation at the fastest rate since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.
Currently, Ukraine has more than 1 million people in military uniform, including civil defense forces, and it believes that it needs to increase its number of troops by about 160,000. Previously, Ukraine has already strengthened the punishment of conscription evaders this year, three years after the Russian invasion, and expanded the age limit for mobilization under martial law law from ’27 years or older’ to ’25 years or older.’ Recently, like Russia, they have even started conscripting prisoners. However, the U.S. government believes that more manpower is needed.
This request for additional manpower is also noteworthy in that it comes ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump’s second administration on January 20th next year. This appears to be the result of President-elect Trump, who has promised an early end to the war, deciding that it was necessary to at least maintain the status quo on the Kursk Front and other areas before taking office, and to demonstrate Ukraine’s will to fight. In a situation where more than 56 billion dollars (about 78 trillion won) of security support was provided to Ukraine after the start of the war, it may be that they recognized the limitations of supplying weapons without additional manpower.
However, Reuters reported that the Ukrainian government is expressing difficulty in responding to the request for expanded conscription from the United States and other countries, saying that the bigger problem is that Western weapons support is not being delivered on time.
Here are two PAA questions related to the actual information in the provided text:
The provided text suggests that the United States government is urging Ukraine to lower its conscription age from 25 to 18 to strengthen its military forces against Russia.
Here’s a breakdown based on the information in the provided text:
* **Reasoning:** The US believes Ukraine needs more “manpower” due to Russia’s advance on the eastern front and North Korea’s support for Russia.
* **Ukraine’s Position:** Ukraine is facing difficulties in responding to this request, citing delays in receiving Western weapons support as a bigger problem.
Let me know if you’d like me to explore any specific aspects of this issue in more detail.
