Ukraine encountered mounting difficulties in its efforts to recruit troops to the front line 0
(Dan Tri) – The more than 2-year war of attrition with Russia has caused Ukraine challenges in its efforts to call up men to the army, and they also face the risk of `running out` of young men in the future.
A group of Ukrainian soldiers training on the outskirts of Kharkov (Photo: Abaca Press).
About a million people serving in the Ukrainian army are exhausted as the war with Russia enters its 26th month.
Many soldiers have been fighting for the past two years without getting any rest.
However, according to the New York Times, Ukraine is facing a serious demographic challenge: This Eastern European country has very few young men.
According to statistics, the group of healthy young people under 30 years old in Ukraine, the backbone of a military, is at a very low level.
That is the reason why Ukraine took a lot of time to consider reducing the age of military mobilization from 27 to 25. The number 25 is still quite high compared to the standards of most other countries.
However, in a country with few young men like Ukraine, moves related to the topic of military recruitment are very sensitive.
In fact, Ukraine’s demographic problem was affected decades ago.
According to the New York Times, the impact of World War I and World War II affected Ukraine’s demographic situation: During wartime, fewer children were born.
By the 1990s, signs of the demographic crisis began to become serious.
On average, the birth rate for Ukrainian women was 1.9 in 1991, the year Ukraine declared independence.
Oleksandr Hladun, Deputy Director of the Mykhailo Ptukha Institute for Demographic Research, said: `In the 1990s, uncertainty about the future dominated life in Ukraine, as savings disappeared and wages became
As a result, the group of young people born at that time, now 18-27 years old, makes up a small part of Ukraine’s population.
Like Ukraine, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia also faced a decade of sharp decline in birth rate, for the same reason.
But in the war over the past two years, Ukraine is under greater pressure than Russia.
Therefore, according to the New York Times, Ukraine’s reduction of the military conscription age to 25 can be considered a risky step that could affect the country’s future population.
According to government statistics, Ukraine has 467,000 men aged 25 and 26. However, not all of these people are living in the country because some have gone abroad, or live in areas where Russia
The crisis is at risk of prolonging
In addition, another worry that Ukraine faces is that the birth rate has continued to decrease over the years.
One of the reasons for this decrease is that about 800,000 Ukrainian women aged 18-34 have left the country because of the fighting.
Now, according to the New York Times, the lack of women has a stronger impact on the demographic crisis facing Ukraine than calling more young men into the army.
According to expert Hladun, the demographic situation in Ukraine will now depend on two factors: How many men will return after the war and how many women will return home.
`What can we do? We are in a war,` Mr. Hladun emphasized.
