Russian President Vladimir Putin told the world's leading news agencies this week he believes the United States will force Zelensky to lower the mobilization age to 18 and then get rid of him. It would take a year to implement it, Putin assessed.
In April, Zelensky signed legislation into law to lower the minimum conscription age to 25 from 27.
Weapons Are Complete Waste Without Manpower
"This is clearly a sign of desperation," ret. US Army Col. and political commentator Earl Rasmussen said.
Regardless of the equipment or funds provided by the West, if there are no soldiers to train and operate the weapons, then they are a complete waste and do little to even weaken Russian forces, Rasmussen observed.
"Zelensky is already not popular, and this will only anger the public more who have watched generations eliminated for no reason other than to appease foreign geopolitical interests and potentially personal wealth," he said.
A recent poll published by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that half of Ukrainians accuse Zelensky of failing to deliver on his 2019 campaign promises.
"Zelensky is long overdue but may still be useful for the West until after the elections. Then we’ll see," Rasmussen said.
His safety is far from guaranteed but the threat to him is greater from within his own government and military, the expert noted.
'Child Soldiers'
CovertAction magazine Managing Editor Jeremy Kuzmarov agreed that the reports of US policymakers urging tougher conscription laws in Kiev reflected "growing desperation on the part of the United States and Ukraine."
It also shows the utter hypocrisy of US leaders, Kuzmarov emphasized.
"They claim to be for human rights yet support the unethical use of child soldiers in this war. They know these soldiers will be used as cannon fodder in a war they provoked and that could have easily been ended," he said.
Biden's policy on Ukraine is now reminiscent of Laos in the 1960s when the CIA recruited child soldiers for its Hmong clandestine army to fight the communist Pathet Lao in a secret war, Kuzmarov recalled.
Former US diplomat and State Department consultant on relations with Russia James Carden also agreed that the reports revealed panic and desperation in the Biden administration.
Martial law was introduced in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The next day, Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. The martial law and mobilization have been continuously extended since then. On May 9, the Ukrainian president signed bills to extend mobilization and martial law in the country for another 90 days. Under martial law, Ukrainian citizens aged from 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.