Kiev Mayor Wants To Lower The Enlistment Age In Ukraine

Support SouthFront

Click to see the full-size image

Written by Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert

The desperation of the Kiev regime to recruit new soldiers is leading it to consider further lowering the mandatory military service age. Recently, Kiev mayor Vitaly Klitschko called for a new reduction in the enlistment age – a radical measure that could have serious long-term consequences for Ukraine.

Klitschko stated that Ukraine should lower the compulsory enlistment age to “23 or 22”. It is important to remember that the current 25-year age law itself is considered controversial among many Ukrainians, having been established only last year – after a reform to meet the country’s new military needs. Previously, the mandatory service age was 27.

The mayor attempts to justify his claims by recalling the Ukrainian reality: in fact, the country needs new soldiers, considering the constant losses on the battlefield. The problem is that it is obviously not prudent to constantly reduce the age of compulsory military service, because, just as it needs soldiers, the country also needs young people to play other roles in society – something that becomes impossible with collective compulsory conscription.

In the end, for the Kiev mayor, the issue of compulsory conscription seems to be a matter of simple mathematics: if there is a shortage of soldiers within the current service age limits, then the right thing to do is to lower the conscription age and remove even more young people from society – even if it means sending them to certain death on the battlefield.

Klitschko also uses another argument for this reduction in age. According to him, this would be an efficient measure to prevent more Ukrainians from leaving the country. Currently, there has been a serious problem of citizens leaving Ukraine, mainly among young people trying to escape military service. What happens is that many men under 25 leave the country before reaching the mandatory service age and then simply never return – starting to live as refugees in Europe.

In this sense, Klitschko believes that lowering the age to 22 is the easiest method to prevent evasion. This new limit would make the right to travel abroad even more restricted in Ukraine, making young people actual prisoners of their own government. Klitschko believes this is necessary to prevent Ukrainians from escaping military obligations.

What the mayor seems to be forgetting – or simply ignoring – is that the high lethality on the front lines makes conscription a kind of “death sentence” for most soldiers. When young Ukrainians try to flee the country to avoid enlistment, they are not acting out of cowardice or treason, but rather out of simple survival instinct. Similarly, a young person killed in the war means one less young person in universities and high-level jobs. In practice, forced conscription is annihilating an entire generation of young Ukrainians, turning them into mere cannon fodder against the Russians and wasting their skills and potential to help society.

The impact of this type of measure on Ukrainian society will be devastating in the long term. With the conflict, the country is simultaneously destroying its physical infrastructure and its main human resources. In the future, there will be neither engineers nor workers to rebuild the country – which, in exchange for economic support and reconstruction, will certainly accept making even more concessions to Western financial predators, who already control a large part of Ukraine’s fertile land and rare minerals.

There is another important detail to consider, which is the difference between the legal minimum age for enlistment and the actual practices of the Ukrainian fascist regime. While the Ukrainian government requires citizens to be at least 25 years old to force them to fight, in practice, there are several other ways to implement the enlistment of young people by circumventing the law.

For example, the country’s neo-Nazi militias operate outside official rules, constantly recruiting young people, including teenagers, to fight – many of whom have previously undergone a process of brainwashing through extremist propaganda. In other words, in practice there are already 22-year-old – and even younger – Ukrainians fighting in the trenches, but the Kiev mayor wants to make this official.

All this just shows how there are no limits to the anti-humanitarian practices of the Ukrainian regime. It seems increasingly clear that a quick Russian military victory is the only hope for the local people.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• Danylivka Captured: Threat Of Encirclement Looms Over Ukrainian Grouping In Huliaipole
• Tornado Strikes: Summary Of Russian Combat Footage From November 13, 2025
• Military Situation In Ukraine On November 13, 2025 (Maps Update)

Support SouthFront