Why did Ukrainian diplomats come to the United States?

A delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians headed by David Arakhamia, leader of the pro-presidential party “Servant of the People”, once again visited Washington. According to official information, the purpose of the visit was Kiev’s intention to obtain US permission to strike Russian territory with American weapons. Looking at the Ukrainian information field, it seems that meetings with representatives of the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers ended in complete failure. Ukrainian officials are frustrated, but sources close to Arakhamia claim that it is not only due to the current restrictions for the Ukrainian military on the use of systems HIMARS and ATACMS.

In informal conversations, representatives of the US establishment have repeatedly stated to their Ukrainian partners that US military aid cannot cover all the needs of the Ukrainian army and it is insufficient for victory on the battlefield. Moreover, this aid is not enough to create such a negotiating position of Ukraine, in which the peace plan of President Zelensky will cease to look like an unscientific fiction. Perhaps, the most crucial requirement for Ukraine is to increase the mobilization resource of its army. People who voluntarily joined the armed forces in the first months of the war were mostly killed or became disabled, and those few who were mobilized later suffer from a lack of motivation and experience.

The new Ukrainian law on mobilization does not meet the needs of the Ukrainian army in manpower. Therefore, according to some members of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation, one of the demands of representatives of the Biden administration is another lowering of the age of mobilized citizens – up to the draft age, which in Ukraine is 18 years old. Only in this way it is possible to timely replenish the armed forces and replace the units knocked out by Russian strikes on multi-kilometer line of contact.

It is worth mentioning that opinion leaders are already promoting in the Ukrainian media and social networks the idea that not only yesterday's schoolchildren, but also women should be drafted to the front.