💡 SPOTLIGHT
The hard truth Ukraine must face: Its soldiers are far too old
The average age of the Ukrainian military is far above other countries at war, now and historically. This is explained by a demographic deficit and the idea of losing older men is "less of a sacrifice" than youth. But there are growing signs that if the recruitment age isn't lowered, it may be a fatal flaw for the nation's war strategy, writes Mykhailo Dubynianskyi in Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.
The average age of military personnel in the Ukraine military is 40 years old, with plenty of active soldiers even above 45. That was the rather overlooked assessment late last year of Serhiy Rakhmanin, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Defense Committee.
This was not the first time the issue of the aging Ukrainian army has been raised. Back in the fall of 2023, former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to try to get more young people to join the fight, which provoked a wave of indignation in Ukraine.
It is worth conceding right away that the current reality in Ukraine is in stark contrast to the world's military history, where the main burden of war was considered a matter for the young and healthy.
A typical example comes from the homeland of Mr. Wallace, during World War I. In 1916, conscription was introduced in Britain (before that, the country had fought exclusively with volunteer forces), and they began to draft citizens from the age of 18 into the active army. The minimum age for service on the Western Front was 19 years old for a long time, but towards the end of the war, it was lowered to 18 and a half.
The average age of British soldiers killed then was 26 years, with the largest group of deaths among 19-year-olds.
What these figures have in common is that in all cases, we are talking about men under the age of 27: people who today would not be subject to mobilization in Ukraine at all.
As for the 40+ age group, which today forms the backbone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in Britain at that time, that demographic was considered unfit for war. When conscription was introduced in 1916, only men under 41 were subject to it.
We like to draw parallels between the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation and the textbook wars of the 20th century. Yet we are far from sharing the philosophy of which of our own citizens are carrying out the war.
In modern Ukraine, a different approach has prevailed based on the idea of "those who we don't feel as sorry to sacrifice should be sent to war.” Of course, no one says this out loud, but in practice, our country is guided by this principle. And it has its own inexorable logic.
If a 20-year-old is sent to the front and does not return from the war, then a whole life that he did not have time to live dies with him. The family he could have created in the future dies. His unborn children die. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren will never be born.
At the same time, a Ukrainian man over 40 has lived at least half of his life. As a rule, he manages to start a family and have offspring. And even if he does not return from the war, he will leave a tangible mark. His children will grow up, have children of their own, and the thread of life will not be interrupted. [...]
— Read the full article by Mykhailo Dubynianskyi for Ukrainska Pravda, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel shells Gaza’s residential homes, killing at least 40: Israel’s army has killed 40 Palestinians after attacking residential homes in central Gaza. Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is hearing arguments from more than 50 states following a request by the General Assembly to issue a non-binding opinion on the legal consequences of the Israeli occupation.
• U.S. to impose more sanctions on Russia: U.S. will impose sanctions on more than 500 entities, marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in an interview. Adeyemo said this collaborative effort with other nations will focus on Russia's military-industrial complex and businesses in countries that help Russia obtain desired goods. Washington aims to hold Russia accountable for the conflict and the death of opposition figure Alexei Navalny. For more on the impact of sanctions, we offer this recent article by German daily die Welt, translated by Worldcrunch.
• Biden meets Navalny’s family while mother accuses Russia of blackmail: Joe Biden convened a private meeting with Alexei Navalny’s widow and daughter, who firmly believe that the Russian president ordered the opposition leader's death. Following the meeting, the U.S. president said that Navalny's “legacy of courage will endure” through them. Meanwhile, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said she was finally able to see her son’s body at the city morgue. She had filed a lawsuit to contest Russian officials’ previous refusal but was later pressured to agree to a secret burial. “They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,” she said.
• Senegal’s President Sall to step down, but election date still unknown: “On April 2, 2024, my mission ends at the head of Senegal,” the president said during a televised interview, but remains unclear if a new president would be elected before that date. Macky Sall will meet with political leaders next week to discuss elections and what will happen after his departure. “Is democracy in Africa a lost cause?” asked France Inter’s Pierre Haski.
• Dutch PM Rutte set to be next NATO head: The U.S., UK, France and Germany have backed outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become NATO’s next secretary general. Rutte would succeed Jens Stoltenberg, who steps down in October, and would take over at a crucial time for the transatlantic alliance as Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on.
• Private spacecraft makes first U.S. Moon landing in 50 years: The Odysseus spacecraft built and operated by the Texas-based firm Intuitive Machines successfully touched down near the Moon's south pole. This marks the first U.S. landing on the lunar surface since 1972, and the first such accomplishment by a private company. Interested in lunar exploration? We’ve got you covered, courtesy of Les Echos.
• Bad, bad Bobi! Bobi, the dog who died in October, reportedly at the age of 31 years and 165 days, has officially lost his title as the world’s oldest ever dog, following an investigation by Guinness World Records — the end of a month-long saga that followed suspicion raised by vets and other experts.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Everything burned in 30 minutes,” titles Spanish daily ABC, reporting on the devastating fire that ripped through two joined apartment blocks in the Spanish city of Valencia, killing at least four people. Up to 15 people remain missing after firefighters worked overnight to tackle the blaze. The city has declared three days of mourning. The cause of the fire is unknown yet, but experts say that highly flammable cladding on the building enabled the flames to spread rapidly.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
A French Alps “workation”? Here's how to master work-life balance on your skis!
Working neither from the office nor from home: the flexible concept of “workation” is appealing not only to digital nomads but increasingly to regular employees who want to find new ways to for peak work-life balance, reports Valérie Sarre in French business daily Les Echos.
💻 Many teleworkers practice what is referred to as “workation,” a somewhat barbaric term born from the contraction of “work” and “vacation” — or in French “tracances,” which is no more elegant! In recent years and of course especially since the COVID pandemic, new ways of working have emerged. The concept is, instead of staying “confined” at home, that you can work from almost anywhere, depending on your constraints, desires, private life or hobbies.
📶 Tourism professionals are obviously very well aware of this trend. “In Val Thorens, people sitting with their laptops are part of the landscape,” says Vincent Lalanne, director of the town’s tourist office. “Thanks to the Lyon-Turin fiber optic link, we have a very good internet connection, which is a determining factor.” Four- and five-star hotels have equipped themselves with efficient Wi-Fi networks for their guests, but also for those who enjoy working in their cozy lounge.
⛷️ The trend has also become an economic lever for ski resorts. “Workation ticks a lot of boxes in Verbier,” says Arnaud Walpen, in charge of promotion for the Swiss village. “The Valais Canton, in the heart of Europe, is well connected in terms of transportation and the internet. So visiting us for both tourism and work is a good idea. It was already in the air, but with COVID, we have seen people leaving cities and settling here for five to six months. Some have even stayed.”
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
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#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
+72%
That’s the increase in new births, as compared to last year, reported by a hospital in China’s northwestern Shaanxi province. It is one of several examples hinting at a potential natality boost in a country hit by declining birth rates in recent years. The trend, financial news outlet Yicai notes, may be driven by the fact that the Year of the Dragon is considered particularly auspicious in China, as the zodiac sign is linked to “courage and tenacity.”
💬 LEXICON
WCNSF
Christopher Lockyear, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), warned the UN Security Council that children in the Gaza Strip who would survive the war would “not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too,” adding that some as young as five years old say “they would prefer to die.” The MSF International Secretary said that medical teams on the ground have come up with a new acronym to talk about orphaned children: WCNSF, for Wounded Child, No Surviving Family. Lockyear called for “a sustained ceasefire, not a temporary period of calm.”
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
A view of the Odysseus spacecraft, built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, which landed near the south pole of the Moon on Thursday — the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first achieved entirely by the private sector. — Photo: Intuitive Machines/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• The West Bank's Collateral Damage From The Gaza War Is Enormous — DARAJ
• Ukraine To Gaza, India’s Foreign Policy Is Cold Self-Interest — Not Post-Colonial Leadership — THE WIRE
• Can LEGO-Loving "Kidults" Give A Dwindling Toy Industry The Boost It Needs?— DIE WELT
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