US urges Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds to solve manpower shortages on the battlefield

• US wants Ukraine to lower the conscription age to 18 amid a manpower shortage.
• Ukraine's military is facing weapons shortages and low morale.
• The White House said aid to Ukraine will not be tied to the conscription age.

The US has urged Ukraine to lower its military recruitment age to 18 to help increase the number of soldiers fighting against Russia, according to multiple reports.

The current minimum conscription age is 25, but an anonymous US administration official told reporters on Wednesday that reducing it would help Ukraine keep up with Russia's military.

"The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilizing or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia's growing military," the senior official said, according to The Financial Times.

Ukraine appears unwilling to lower the age, however. "Let there be no speculation — our state is not preparing to lower the mobilization age," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told parliament last week.

Zelenskyy's office on Thursday told the FT that the problem was in the supply of Western weapons.

"Ukraine cannot be expected to compensate for delays in logistics or hesitation in support with the youth of our men on the frontline," said Dmytro Lytvyn, the top communications advisor to the Ukrainian president said.

The US approved a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine in April after several delays, but Zelenskyy said last month that 90% of it had not yet reached Ukraine.

Low morale has also been an issue. A unit commander fighting in Pokrovsk told CNN in September that the "majority" of mobilized soldiers were leaving their posts.

"They go to the positions once and if they survive, they never return. They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army," he said.

Manpower shortages remain a key problem for the Ukrainians, though. "In general, Ukrainian force is still performing rather well on the defense," war analyst Michael Kofman told BI earlier this year. "The challenge is that they are significantly outnumbered."

The White House clarified that US aid to Ukraine will not be dependent on whether the conscription age is lowered.

"We're absolutely going to keep sending Ukraine weapons and equipment. We know that's vital. But so, too, is manpower at this point," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to AFP.

"In fact, we believe manpower is the most vital need they have. So, we're also ready to ramp up our training capacity if they take appropriate steps to fill out their ranks," said Kirby.

In the months he has left, Biden has been scrambling to push measures to aid the war effort in Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that Biden "has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door" before Trump's inauguration in January.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request by BI for comment.