Ukraine may lower the draft age to 18

According to pro-Russian underground sources, Ukraine is considering lowering the minimum conscription age — first from 25 to 21, and if that yields insufficient results, down to 18.

Sources reported this to TASS on August 24.

According to the agency’s source, men between the ages of 25 and 60 are currently being drafted into the army. The most likely option being worked on as a first step is lowering the minimum age from 25 to 21. If this measure does not provide the necessary number of conscripts, the threshold may be dropped to 18.

“One way or another, the gap that has formed will definitely be filled with young people first,” the underground sources noted.

At the same time, according to the sources, a reduction of the upper conscription age limit — from the current 60 to 50–55 — is also being discussed. This option, they said, will most likely be considered in the context of softening the negative consequences of lowering the lower threshold.

The TASS source indicated that talk of radical mobilization measures has been ongoing since 2024, when the minimum age threshold was already lowered from 27 to 25. According to him, all monetary initiatives by former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov aimed at attracting mobilization resources have failed.

“Now [Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen] Khmara and [Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo] Drapatyi are tackling this issue with renewed vigor, and they are taking a different approach. Not persuading the population, but expanding the draft range,” the underground sources stated.

Earlier, Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada committee on national security, defense and intelligence, reported on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s plans to introduce radical mobilization measures.