Ukraine could draft 18-year-olds to fight Putin in bombshell plan drawn up by US

A US official said the move would help Ukraine expand the pool of fighting-age men to support its badly outnumbered army - who have been at war with Russia for almost three years

The US is urging Ukraine to boost its military numbers by allowing people as young as 18 to be drafted to war against Russia.

The bombshell new plan would mean Ukraine would have to amend its mobilisation laws to lower the current minimum age of 25 down to 18, helping them expand the pool of fighting-age men to support its badly outnumbered army in its almost three-year-long war with Russia.

A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration is encouraging the move. The official said: "the pure math" of Ukraine's situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight.

Currently Ukraine is not mobilising or training enough soldiers to replace its losses and keep pace with Russia's growing military, the official added. They previously said they would need around 160,000 additional troops to keep up with its battlefield needs, but the U.S. administration believes they probably will need more than that.

More than one million Ukrainians are now in uniform, including the National Guard and other units.

Since the start of Russia's February 2022 invasion, the White House has pumped more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, and is set to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than three months.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett in a statement said the administration will continue sending Ukraine weaponry but believes "manpower is the most vital need" Ukraine has at the moment. "So, we're also ready to ramp up our training capacity if they take appropriate steps to fill out their ranks," Savett said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is aware of concerns from allies in other Western capitals who believe it may soon become untenable for Ukraine to continue to operate in Russia's Kursk border region.

This has been further complicated by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops, who are helping Moscow claw back the land seized in a Ukrainian incursion this year.

"There are no easy answers to Ukraine's serious manpower shortage, but lowering the draft age would help," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "These are obviously difficult decisions for a government and society that has already endured so much due to Russia's invasion."

In April, Ukraine's parliament lowered its draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25. Zelenskyy has since consistently stated he has no plans to lower the mobilisation age.

A senior Ukrainian official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukraine does not have enough equipment to keep up with the scale of its ongoing mobilisation efforts. The official added that Ukrainians do not feel lowering the draft age would substitute Russia's advantage in equipment and weaponry.

Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine throughout the war, with some Ukrainians fearing a lower conscription age would take more young adults out of the workforce and do more harm to the already war-ravaged economy.