MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Young men in Ukraine prefer to move abroad rather than sign contracts to join the army, so Kiev won’t be able to lower the average troop age, Viktor Taran, head of a drone operator training center, said.
"People will leave now. I know that the thought doesn’t sit well with many but I will repeat that we won’t have a younger army. The average troop age has already exceeded 40 years; it’s 44 years, if I’m not mistaken," he told the News - LIVE TV channel, when asked if the government’s decision to allow Ukrainians aged below 23 years to travel abroad would affect a program aimed at encouraging men aged 18-24 to sign army contracts.
According to the expert, such a high average troop age is undermining the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian army.
Earlier, the Ukrainian government issued a decree allowing men aged between 18 and 22 to cross the country's border.
The Kiev authorities have repeatedly stressed that Ukrainian youth were leaving the country en masse before coming of age in order to avoid being banned from traveling abroad. According to Olga Kupets, associate professor with the Kiev School of Economics, special trips are organized in the country’s west for young men to leave the country.
In February, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced a program to recruit men aged between 18 and 24 under contract. They are promised high salaries, along with educational and other benefits, but the contract mandates that they join infantry brigades stationed on the front lines. According to Ukrainian media outlets, only a few hundred people have so far taken this opportunity.
In February 2022, Ukraine started general mobilization, which has been renewed multiple times since. Initially, men between the ages of 27 and 60 were subject to conscription, but in April 2024, the minimum age for mobilization was lowered to 25.