Joe Biden urges Zelensky to increase size of army, suggests reducing recruitment age to 18 years ntc
US President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by recruiting more soldiers and allowing people as young as 18 to enlist.
The outgoing Democratic administration wants to lower the mobilization age from the current 25 to 18 to increase the number of troops fighting in the Ukraine war, a senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday.
Ukraine needs more soldiers
The official said that in simple terms Ukraine’s situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight. The official said that currently Ukraine is neither able to raise nor train enough troops to compensate for the loss of its battlefield while fighting with Russia’s growing army.
The White House has provided more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. It is expected that several billion more dollars will be sent to Kiev before Biden leaves office.
Need a big army to stay in the fight
The Biden administration believes that Ukraine has the weapons it needs and now it will have to significantly increase the number of its troops if it wants to remain in the fight with Russia.
The official said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the US administration believes they will probably need much more. More than 1 million Ukrainians are currently in the military, including the National Guard and other units.
