Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The new mobilization law came into force a day after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed it last year.
It was not immediately clear why Zelenskyy took so long to sign the measure into law. He didn’t make any public comment about it, and officials did not say how many new soldiers the country expected to gain or for which units.
Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine for many months amid a growing shortage of infantry on top of a severe ammunition shortfall that has handed Russia the battlefield initiative. Russia’s own problems with manpower and planning have so far prevented it from taking full advantage of its edge.
Just curious, what do you think should be on the table at the peace talks?
For me, it should be the following:
Russia leaves Ukraine including Crimea and vows to never invade again. I know it didn’t work when Ukraine gave up their nukes for the same vow but one can hope.
Russia pays Ukraine back for all the damage it has done. They were the aggressors, they need to pay up.
All prisoners who were taken to Russia, including children, are to be returned.
No interference if Ukraine wants to join NATO and the EU.
I’m not an expert in peace talks, but I feel the above is fair.
It is completely fair, but the problem is, it’s in no interest for Russia.
Peace talks must include benefits for all sides, otherwise they’ll fail.
I’d say Ukraine should at least recognize Crimea as Russia, and very likely Donbass too, or at least give it certain level of autonomy. The rest of Ukraine is actually of less interest to Russia, so stopping there would probably more than satisfy Putin.
Ukraine, on its hand, should receive NATO security guarantees, preferably ascension, without Putin standing in the way of it. Russia should also pay reparations to Ukraine and release all prisoners, yes. Ukrainian side must release Russian prisoners too.
Regardless of the side Donbass ends up on, Russia must participate in recovery of the region with finances and manpower.
I completely disagree. Russia should receive nothing for what they have done.
Imagine this, Russia decides that Alaska is theirs even though it was sold to the U.S. in 1867. They invade and make it half way into the state. Should the U.S. have peace talks with Russia and say you can have half the state or keep fighting and push them completely out? I guessing most Americans would say F off Russia, get out of our country.
Russia leaving Ukraine is the only justifiable outcome from this invasion. If a child breaks his siblings toy maliciously, you don’t reward them for doing a bad thing. You punish that child for their actions. Putin is nothing more than a spoiled child, you shouldn’t reward him for his bad behavior.
I feel like the mistake many make is comparing war to school bullies and children breaking toys.
There’s a big difference, though. In a war, people die. And sometimes, it may actually be wiser to give something up to save people’s lives, and then regroup in a way to prevent that from ever happening again than to try and “punish” a country with great ability to cause a lot more damage.
By trying to “teach Putin a lesson”, we tend to ignore the fact that he’s not a particularly good pupil and he rules a major army that currently razes Ukraine to the ground.
The problem is that Russia has far more resources than Ukraine and they have an upper hand in this war. They do not wish to leave empty handed. As sad as it is, for peace to happen Ukraine is going to have to lose something.
Putin already said he doesn’t want peace when the opponent has a shortage of ammo so this discussion is irrelevant anyway.
I wish we did more for Ukraine, it’s deeply saddening to see the news :(
It is completely fair, but the problem is, it’s in no interest for Russia.
It’s absolutely in Russia’s interest, even the reparations – they can pay them in mining concessions, noone would mind. Russia is paying 300 million a day for the war, that’s two top-notch brand-new hospitals built from scratch. Per day.
It’s not in Putin’s interest, though. The days for “Comrade Vladimirovich, we think it is time to rest on your laurels and retire to your Dacha” is over, he’s gone too far for that, even a regime-internal coup would mean he’s done for.
Good point on the distinction - while Russia loses on that, Putin loses much more. Essentially, he just cannot afford to lose.
Even still, Russia itself won’t be better off if it just leaves and pays back everything - it’s not only reparations, but also all the infrastructural investment etc, as well as trust of the people of Crimea (who really were supportive of the annexation, can tell you that from the ground) and many on the Donbass, as well as the crucial military base of Sevastopol, which was probably big part of the reason for the annexation to begin with - it’s so important, in fact, that Sevastopol is the only city besides Moscow and Saint Petersburg with a special federal status.
Crimea is also dominated by ethnic Russians (65%), not Ukrainians (15%), which further exacerbates the issue.
The problem is so bad even Navalny said it’s not easy to “just” return Crimea. Because it really isn’t, it’d be a shitshow now, with locals standing up against it, and Russia having to sacrifice much more than just a meaningless peninsula.
Peace talks must include benefits for all sides, otherwise they’ll fail.
For the aggressor to benefit is encouraging more aggression, not less.
