Slovak defense minister: Instead of NATO troops, send draft-age Ukrainian men back home to fight

Rather than considering sending NATO troops to Ukraine, Kyiv’s Western allies need to help Ukrainian men of military draft age return home to join the country's army, Slovak Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák said March 10.

“We [i.e. the West] want to send NATO troops to Ukraine instead of thinking about all the refugees from Ukraine whom we protect, to whom we give a place to live and work," Kaliňák said said during a debate on Slovakia's privately-owned TA3 TV channel.

Among these refugees "is a group that falls within the Ukrainian law on mobilization, so not children or women or even younger or older men," he added.

"Nothing would help the Ukrainian army more than the return of the Ukrainian men of draft age capable of fighting the war," said Kaliňák, who is also deputy prime minister. "They are sufficiently patriotic, so we have to motivate them and provide resources to these young men who are able to serve in the Ukraine army to go back and do so. It's surely better than sending our own soldiers there."

Kaliňák said some 300,000 Ukrainian men have left the country since Russia invaded in February 2022, and can be legally drafted under existing mobilization rules.

Kyiv's new mobilization bill, which has so far only passed first reading in the parliament, lowers the mobilization age from 27 to 25 years, which would allow the rotation of Ukraine’s exhausted front-line soldiers. It has proven unpopular, however, with politicians struggling to recruit public support and more money for a new wave of troops.