MP: No legislative initiatives to reduce the mobilisation age have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada

To date, no legislative initiatives to lower the mobilization age have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. All that is being discussed is political debate, which is unlikely to find support in the Verkhovna Rada.

This was announced by MP, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Fedir Venislavsky during a briefing, reports UNN.  

As of today, no legislative initiatives aimed at lowering the conscription age below 25 have been registered in the parliament. All that is being discussed is purely political debate, which, in my deep conviction, is unlikely to find support both in our committee and in the parliament as a whole. This is just political demagoguery

Venislavsky noted that over the past year, several thousand Ukrainian citizens aged 18 to 25 have signed contracts for military service. 

After the development of motivational packages that will include one-time, I think, cash payments that can be stretched over time to attract people to the army. If without these initiatives we have thousands of people now, it will probably increase many times over

 Earlier, the media reported, citing sources, that men aged 18-25 were to be encouraged to join the Armed Forces voluntarily by introducing a system of incentive contracts.

Context

President Zelenskyy opposed lowering the mobilization age, as demanded by the United States, noting that it would only increase the number of unarmed people at the front.

 Zelensky claimed more than 100 brigades on the battlefield, which need to be updated daily with military equipment.

  Zelensky emphasizes the priority of technical equipment and training of the military.  

On January 12, Mike Waltz, the future National Security Advisor to the US President, stated that it is necessary to solve the problems with human resources in the Armed Forces in order to create new units and stabilize the situation at the front. After that, it will be possible to move on to agreements on Ukraine.  

Commenting on the statements about calls to lower the mobilization age in Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said that we need to wait for Ukrainian-American contactsc. Kyiv's general position is that it needs more defense capabilities.