Ukraine allows young men aged 18-23 to fly abroad as Zelenskyy battles conscription dilemma

While the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage on, men between the ages of 18 and 22 will no longer be barred from leaving Ukraine under new regulations. The move eases the rule introduced in the early days of the Russian invasion to ensure the country had enough soldiers.

The ban on young men travelling out of the country took effect under Ukraine’s martial law, which was imposed in February 2022, soon after Russia commenced its invasion of Ukraine. The law applied to men from 80 to 60 years and also included those who are not yet eligible for the draft, which currently starts from age 25.

Now, under the new rule, which will go into effect on Thursday, men will be allowed to travel outside Ukraine until they reach the age of 23. Over the last three years, families in Ukraine have sent their teenage sons out of the country before they turned 18 to avoid conscription.

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The change in law was announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. The move would allow young men to travel and study abroad without feeling that they had to leave to avoid the draft. “We want Ukrainians to maintain as many ties with Ukraine as possible,” she said.

Why Ukraine continues to keep its draft age high

For the first two years of the Russian invasion, men under the age of 27 were not obliged to fight in the war. However, things changed in 2024, when Ukraine reduced the draft age to 25 after facing pressure from its Western allies.

The move was needed since the casualties of Ukrainian troops were increasing significantly, causing a shortage of soldiers fighting the war. Last year, Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, said that American lawmakers from both parties are pressuring Ukraine to lower its conscription age further to 18.

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However, Ukraine so far resisted such measures, pointing to the demographic trends stemming from a plunge in birthrates after the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine has relatively few men in their 20s, but most of the men in the country are in their 40s.

How will the move affect the country’s military?

The simple answer to this question is that it still remains unclear exactly how the change would affect conscription in the Ukrainian military. Many parents have been sending children abroad before they turn 18 because of concerns that the war could go on for years or the government could again lower the draft age.

Allowing young men to leave before they turn 23 rather than 18 seems to run against the American pressure on Ukraine. Many experts continue to raise concerns over the Ukrainian Army’s lack of manpower as the country’s greatest challenge in the war against Russia, which has a much bigger population.

“It’s hard for me to explain this from the perspective of waging a war of attrition,” Mykhailo Samus, the director of the independent New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv, told The New York Times. “Basically, this is the reduction in the size of the mobilisation reserve.”

But some experts believe that the change would not lead to an exodus of young men and might instead deepen their ties to Ukraine. It is important to note that under this rule, young men are still prohibited from leaving the country for two years before becoming eligible for the draft.

“The goal of this step is, first and foremost, to provide young Ukrainians with broader opportunities for education, internships and legal employment abroad, so that the experience they gain can later be used for the development of Ukraine,” Ihor Klymenko, the minister of internal affairs, wrote on Telegram. Hence, it will be interesting to see whether the change in rule would emerge as a boon or a bane for Ukraine.