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April 27th, 2024 | 8:54 AM ET

As Ukraine Fights For its Survival, Many Young Men Sit Out the War

Posted: March 7th, 2024

By Brian Bonner

Brian Bonner led the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's English-language newspaper, from 2008-2021, but spent most of his career as a journalist covering international, national and local news for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota from 1983-2007. Now, besides working for The Cipher Brief, he hosts a weekly English-language podcast on Hromadske (Public) Radio in Kyiv.

SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING – As war rages and Ukrainian leaders plead for military aid from the West, the country isn’t just running low on weapons. It’s running low on soldiers, too.

While Russia pours new recruits into the fight – drafting men from Russian jails and offering generous pay to new recruits – Ukraine allows many of its most able-bodied men to stay on the sidelines. Under Ukrainian law, men under the age of 27 cannot be conscripted, the thinking being that society must protect its youngest adults so that they can pursue their education, get jobs and start families.

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