“Washington is pressuring Ukraine to change the law and allow it to mobilize young adults,” the AP and British newspaper Financial Times wrote. The representative of Joe Biden's administration assessed that this is necessary to respond to the lack of personnel in the Ukrainian army.
According to the AP news agency, a senior official of the administration said on Wednesday that Washington wants Ukraine to reduce the age of mobilization from 25 to 18. The official claimed that it arose from “pure mathematics” about the current situation and personnel problems of the armed forces of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the goal of the current administration in the final weeks of its presidency is to equip Ukraine with the equipment that will enable it to fight within the next year.
READ ALSO: Ukraine's law on mobilization came into force. “No one sends a teenager to the front line”
However, this official, quoted by AP, believes that with the supply of weapons, Kiev should also provide itself with a sufficient number of soldiers. He also assessed that Ukraine should increase the number of soldiers in its army to more than 160,000 soldiers that Ukrainians are talking about.
The US wants to reduce the age of Ukrainian recruits facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua
The issue of mobilization in Ukraine is controversial
According to the AP report, the representatives of other partners of Ukraine have made similar statements to the authorities of Kyiv and claimed that the problem of this country is related to the number of troops and not the availability of weapons.
They also expressed the opinion that, taking into account the expansion of the front to the Kursk region, it may not be possible to maintain the Ukrainian bridgehead on the territory of Russia.
READ ALSO: Ukrainian authorities plan to mobilize 160,000 people
The issue of mobilization has long been controversial in Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has delayed the entry into force of the current mobilization law.
Officials: Ukraine is not mobilizing enough forces
As AP mentioned, the concern of the Kyiv authorities was related to the impact of the decision to increase the collection on the Ukrainian economy. According to the American authorities, the response to these challenges may be a stricter approach on the part of Ukraine towards the fugitives.
Although Russia has suffered heavy losses during offensive operations in recent months and also has problems with the availability of troops, the balance of forces is still in Moscow's favor. Thanks to this, the Russian army can gradually advance on the front.
“The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently fielding or training enough forces to replace losses on the battlefield and keep pace with Russia's growing military,” concluded a US official quoted by the FT.
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