[Goose]

Maybe this was mentioned previously but the reason Ukraine's draft age is so atypical is because their demographics were very affected by the collapse of the USSR such that the present young generation is much smaller than older generations.

This means that there are less young people to draft, but also that the more young people die in the war (particularly if before they have children) subsequent generations will be even smaller.

Of course you can only worry about future generations if they have a country to be born into, and political leadership has finally lowered the draft age to 25.

But this demographic problem for Ukraine is also at least partially why they have not tried drafting women, though volunteers are welcome in both combat and non combat roles. Young men dying would be a big future demographic problem, young women even worse.

You are IMO absolutely right on all points. Ukraine doesn't want to make the population "hole" any bigger than it already is/will be. Killing men who already have had a family is less injurious to the future Ukraine. As you say however, Ukraine has to win or that won't matter nearly as much. Also, as the war goes on the 20 year olds will eventually become 25 year olds. Right now I don't think the Ukrainian birth rate is going up. In fact, quite the opposite. Ending the war sooner may actually save lives, although that is hard to prove to the population's satisfaction. There are also many cultural barriers to drafting women into potentially combat positions. This is true in the US as well, despite the number of women already in our military. These barriers are much more prevalent in Ukraine.

[Goose]

Maybe this was mentioned previously but the reason Ukraine's draft age is so atypical is because their demographics were very affected by the collapse of the USSR such that the present young generation is much smaller than older generations.

This means that there are less young people to draft, but also that the more young people die in the war (particularly if before they have children) subsequent generations will be even smaller.

Of course you can only worry about future generations if they have a country to be born into, and political leadership has finally lowered the draft age to 25.

But this demographic problem for Ukraine is also at least partially why they have not tried drafting women, though volunteers are welcome in both combat and non combat roles. Young men dying would be a big future demographic problem, young women even worse.

You are IMO absolutely right on all points. Ukraine doesn't want to make the population "hole" any bigger than it already is/will be. Killing men who already have had a family is less injurious to the future Ukraine. As you say however, Ukraine has to win or that won't matter nearly as much. Also, as the war goes on the 20 year olds will eventually become 25 year olds. Right now I don't think the Ukrainian birth rate is going up. In fact, quite the opposite. Ending the war sooner may actually save lives, although that is hard to prove to the population's satisfaction. There are also many cultural barriers to drafting women into potentially combat positions. This is true in the US as well, despite the number of women already in our military. These barriers are much more prevalent in Ukraine.