Ukrainians studying abroad cannot be taken to the front line against their will, a young man from Kharkov has told The Times Read Full Article at RT.com
Young men of fighting age who study abroad cannot be forced to the front line, a young man from Kharkov has told the paper
Many Ukrainian teenagers are planning to leave the country and never return as a response to increased US pressure for Kiev to lower the minimum age of conscription, The Times has reported.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken complained earlier this week that “18 to 25-year-olds are not in the fight” against Russia. “Getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary,” he stressed.
The British paper quoted a teenager from the city of Kharkov in an article on Thursday, who said that “many” of his friends are now choosing to study abroad because “it is safer there.”
“There is no risk of being taken into the army at a foreign university,” he explained, adding that he plans to study in Poland and may not return after graduation.
"When I have finished, I will decide whether to return to Ukraine or stay there. It will be safer there, there are no bombs falling and there is no danger that I will be mobilized for the war without my consent,” he said.
Another teenager who spoke to The Times said he also wants to seek higher education in a foreign country.
In response to the US call for Kiev to send teenagers to the front line, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandra Ustinova told the paper that a decision to lower the mobilization age to 18 would be met with “huge opposition inside Ukraine and we would not get the results [on the battlefield] that we want because this is not such a large amount of people.”
“It would also be a clear signal for families to get their children out. So, if we want to lose our future generation, then, yeah, this is the thing to do,” Ustinova stressed.
The number of men aged 18 to 25 in Ukraine is estimated to be at least 300,000.
According to UN data, at least 6.8 million Ukrainians have fled the country and become refugees since the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Most of them are women and children. Men of fighting age are banned from traveling abroad.
Since the start of the conflict, officials in Moscow have repeatedly accused the US and its allies of wanting “to fight to the last Ukrainian” in their effort to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who canceled a presidential election earlier this year, has “no right to push people to their death and drive them into battle.” The orders that Zelensky gives are “criminal,” Putin stressed.
