“Youth must be protected” – Zaluzhny opposes lowering conscription age
Source: Bukvy
Former Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said he is against the idea that Ukraine must mobilize young people aged 18 to 25. Calling them the “future of Ukraine, the general who recently became Ukraine’s envoy in the UK argued they could be conscripted in the most extreme circumstances.
During his October 3 meeting with Ukrainian students in Lon, Zaluzhny said,
“Youth aged 18 to 25 must be protected as much as possible. When I was Commander-in-Chief, I always opposed mobilizing those under 25 because Ukraine will need them in 20 or 30 years. These are the people who will save this country.”
He also revealed the Ukrainian army has had a hard time as it has to count on older soldiers with their post-Soviet mindset becoming a challenge.
“With a 50-year-old man, you need to explain why his company or battalion should attack or defend a position. Their mentality is different—more Soviet, with the idea that ‘someone else’ can do it,” Zaluzhny explained.
The general stressed that compulsory mobilization of the youth could be needed in a worst-case scenario.
“If the country reaches a point where its very existence is at stake, only young people aged 18 to 25 can save it, as they are a completely different generation,” he concluded.
In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.
Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.
Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
In recent days, Moscow’s official rhetoric has been dominated by hysteria over the decision of…
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.