The mayor of Kiev is urging young men to fight while his own sons are avoiding service
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed that the mayor Vitaly Klitschko has called for draft age to be lowered even further in Ukraine, while his own two sons, who are both in good physical shape, avoid service.
Last year, Ukraine lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 and tightened enforcement as its military continued to suffer heavy losses.
RT reports: Speaking at a briefing on Friday, Zakharova charged that the leadership in Kiev “is ready to destroy the last of Ukrainian citizens by any means possible, with the sole purpose of ensuring that the West provides them with weapons and, of course, money.” She claimed that the ruling Ukrainian “clique” is only interested in holding on to power.
The spokeswoman noted that Klitschko himself has two sons “fit for military service, incidentally, of heroic build,” who, for some reason, have not joined the ranks, citing media reports that both are residing abroad.
“Ultimately, the key issue is whether they’re unwilling to serve, or whether Klitschko himself is keeping them from being drafted to serve in defense of his own regime,” she concluded.
Her remark came in response to the Kiev mayor’s interview with Politico published on Wednesday, in which Klitschko acknowledged that Ukraine is facing “huge problems with soldiers – with human resources.”
The Kiev mayor suggested that the draft age “could be lowered by a year or two – to 23 or 22,” arguing that “in the past, 18-year-olds served in the army.” Klitschko’s sons are 20 and 25.
In August, the Ukrainian government issued a decree allowing men aged 18 to 22 to cross the border. Nearly 100,000 young men have reportedly fled the country since then.
Kiev’s mobilization drive has been marred by cases of abuse by draft officers, some of which have been caught on camera and gone viral on social media.
In July, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, sounded the alarm over “systematic and widespread” abuse by Ukrainian draft enforcers.