Teenagers preparing to flee Ukraine – The Times

Those studying abroad cannot be taken to the front line against their will, a young man from Kharkov has told the paper

Many Ukrainian teenagers are planning to leave the country and never return as the US increases pressure on Kiev to lower the mobilization age, the Times has reported.

Earlier this week, outgoing US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said it was not right that “18 to 25-year-olds are not in the fight” against Russia. “Getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary,” he stressed.

In an article on Thursday, the British paper quoted a teenager from the city of Kharkov, who said that “many” of his friends are now choosing to study abroad because “it is safer there.”

“There is no risk of being taken into the army at a foreign university,” he explained, adding that he plans to study in Poland, and may not return after graduation.

“When I have finished, I will decide whether to return to Ukraine or stay there. It will be safer there, there are no bombs falling and there is no danger that I will be mobilized for the war without my consent,” he said.

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Another teenager who spoke to The Times said he also wants to attend higher education in a foreign country.

Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandra Ustinova told the paper that a decision to lower the mobilization age to 18 would be met with “huge opposition inside Ukraine and we would not get the results [on the battlefield] that we want because this is not such a large amount of people.”

“It would also be a clear signal for families to get their children out. So, if we want to lose our future generation, then, yeah, this is the thing to do,” Ustinova stressed.

The number of men aged between 18 and 25 in Ukraine is estimated to be at least 300,000.

According to UN data, at least 6.8 million Ukrainians have fled the country and become refugees since the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Most of them are women and children, as men of fighting age are banned from travelling abroad.

Since the start of the conflict, officials in Moscow have repeatedly accused the US and its allies of wanting “to fight to the last Ukrainian” in their effort to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who canceled a presidential election earlier this year, has “no right to push people to their death and drive them into battle.” The orders that Zelensky gives are “criminal,” Putin stressed.