this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
249 points (96.3% liked)

World News

39153 readers
4245 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The new mobilization law came into force a day after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed it last year.

It was not immediately clear why Zelenskyy took so long to sign the measure into law. He didn’t make any public comment about it, and officials did not say how many new soldiers the country expected to gain or for which units.

Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine for many months amid a growing shortage of infantry on top of a severe ammunition shortfall that has handed Russia the battlefield initiative. Russia’s own problems with manpower and planning have so far prevented it from taking full advantage of its edge.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] matjoeman 37 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Interesring that it's already so high, don't most countries have conscription at 18?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Few countries have demographics so fucked up as Ukraine. It's the same "WWII generation can't have kids on account of being dead" and "everyone got scared of their future prospects when the USSR fell and people are too well-educated to bring kids into an uncertain future" double-dip that also Russia suffers from, though Ukraine has an even lower fertility rate, 1.16 vs. 1.49, and overall that wasp waist is way more pronounced, here's Russia. Ukraine is also losing plenty of working population to the EU, has way before people began to flee the invasion. The drain is on well-educated people, people coming to the EU as seasonal workers in agriculture etc. rather funnel money back to Ukraine.

The situation would be a catastrophe of Korean proportions if Ukrainians managed to be as in denial about the situation as Koreans are, but they're not. It's still severely fucked, though^1^.

The size of the cohorts that now got added is in comparison tiny, as you see, and I'd be surprised if they're sending them to the front. It's going to be training in all that newfangled western stuff and stand-off warfare for them, not the trenches.


^1^ I can't help but ask: It is said that one of the main cultural differences between Germany and Austria is that in Germany, bad situations are serious but not hopeless while in Austria they're hopeless, but not serious. What's Ukraine's take?

[–] samus12345 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Was curious how the US stacked up and wow, that's a huge difference! Interesting to see the Boomer Hershey's Kiss shape at the top.