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.
The US clarified their position on that: They’re “not encouraging” attacks on refineries. Which is different from both “discouraging” and “encouraging”.
That’s some serious “US does everything it does because US is bad” thinking. 6-d CIA chess with evil cackling. There’s plenty of valid economic reasons to not be excited about Russian refineries getting decarbonised, first and foremost the world market price for petroleum products.
My take on that is that economy strategists in the White House are sitting there gritting their teeth after having been told to pound sand by the military strategists.
It’s really effective though. Ukraine was hitting Russia exactly where it hurts, their fuel storage and production. The big money. And then America says "No don’t do that, they might retaliate (as if Russia isn’t at war with Ukraine already?)
This is practically America saying “Go do war with Russia but don’t hit them where it hurts! Just throw some wet noodles at them!”
Well if the US doesn’t like Ukraine hitting refineries they’re free to send enough ATACMs etc. to be able to hit other targets that will have the same overall impact on Russian capabilities. As far as Ukraine is concerned it doesn’t matter whether Russia has no fuel or no trucks, tanks, planes, and missiles.
Which might be why the GOP opposition seems to be at least make appearance of possibly melting away, presumably lobbyists are working the non-MAGA crowd.