Ukraine proposes to reduce the age limit for military service from 60 to 55
25 November 2024 14:56
The Verkhovna Rada is considering a draft law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Military Duty and Military Service’ to Reduce the Age Limit for Military Service and Persons Liable for Military Service in the Reserve, as well as to Preserve Access to Military Service for Citizens Who Have Expressed a Will to Serve After Reaching the Age Limit for Military Service.” This is reported on the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs.
The draft law proposes to reduce the age limit for military service and reservists from 60 to 55 years, as well as to preserve access to military service for citizens who have expressed a desire to serve after reaching the age limit for military service.
Among the initiators of the draft law are MPs Oleksiy Honcharenko, Volodymyr Ariev, Yulia Tymoshenko, Yana Zinkevych, and Solomiya Bobrovska.
What justifies the expediency of adopting the draft law?
As noted in the explanatory note to the draft law, after the provisions on demobilization of servicemen after 36 months of service disappeared from the law on mobilization in the spring of 2024, the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense promised to develop a new draft law on demobilization within eight months. Seven months have passed since then, and there have been no discussions on the provisions of the demobilization law.
The authors of the draft law, arguing for the expediency of making these changes, refer to the position of the ATO Veterans Union, which believes that it is now imperative to finally let the soldiers who have been defending Ukraine since the spring of 2022 go home: first of all, those who are wounded and those who are over 50 years old. Of course, the MPs admit, not all of them may want to be demobilized, but all this needs to be established, the necessary number and order of priority determined, surveys conducted among the military, registers compiled, and an algorithm for their replacement prepared.
There are also petitions to reduce the mobilization age from 60 to 55 years, in which such changes are justified, in particular, by the fact that the physical health of most men aged 55 to 60 is unsatisfactory and almost always, according to the results of the military hospital commission, men of this age are at least partially fit for military service.
