The Foreign Intelligence Service spoke about the West’s recommendations to Kyiv on mobilization

The United States and Great Britain are directing the Ukrainian leadership to maximize mobilization efforts to make up for large losses after the unsuccessful counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was stated on November 20 by the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia, Sergei Naryshkin. The statement was released by the department’s press bureau.

“The West demands from the regime [президента Украины Владимира] Zelensky, regardless of losses, demonstrate to the world community the impossibility of Russia’s victory in the Ukrainian conflict,” Naryshkin noted.

According to intelligence information, the United States and Great Britain gave Kyiv recommendations to reduce the draft age in the country to 17 years and raise it to 70 years, as well as to carry out additional mobilization of women. In addition, Naryshkin indicated that the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Rustem Umerov, proposed that the Verkhovna Rada study the possibility of lowering the minimum conscription age.

“If this happens, the Kiev regime will confirm its Nazi essence by sending seventeen-year-old boys into the heat of war to prolong the agony of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the head of the SVR emphasized, comparing such actions with the actions of fascist Germany in creating the Volkssturm Nazi militia in the fall of 1944, in within the framework of which children’s units of the Hitler Youth were formed.

Earlier, on November 8, the Verkhovna Rada supported Zelensky’s bills on extending martial law in the country and general mobilization until February 14, 2024. Before this, on October 25, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security Sergei Rakhmanin said that mobilization in Ukraine could be intensified, including due to losses at the front.

Martial law has been in force in Ukraine since February 2022, at the same time Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a law on the general mobilization of citizens, according to which men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country. This summer, the country’s authorities expanded the list of citizens subject to mobilization.

In addition, in September, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued an order on the basis of which they will mobilize men with limited fitness for military service. The department has made changes to the regulations on military medical examination in the Ukrainian army.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision to hold it was made against the backdrop of an aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.