As Most Ukrainians Prefer Ceasefire With Russia, Washington Says More Ukrainian Teenagers Should Die

The US wants Ukraine to lower the draft age to 18 to keep the war with Russia going. At the same time, polls show that more than half of Ukrainians want to negotiate peace. Washington doesn't care.

Despite the triumphalist rhetoric commonly found in Western circles, there is growing reluctance of the Ukrainian population to participate in what is increasingly seen as a doomed struggle.

A recent Gallup poll showed that most of Ukrainians favored quick peace negotiations with Russia in order to end the conflict. 52% responded that they believed that “Ukraine should seek to negotiate an ending to the war as soon as possible.” Only 38% responded that “Ukraine should continue fighting until it wins the war.”

Support for the war has decreased in all regions, with those closest to the front lines in the east having the highest rates of battlefield fatigue. These are the numbers in 2022:

This is what it became in 2024.

Washington sees these numbers and dismissed them. Instead, they are calling on Ukraine to start sending teenagers to die on the battlefield by lowering the draft age to 18. The draft age is currently 25, but after years of major losses on the battlefield, the average age of the Ukrainian military is 43 years old. Earlier this year, it was politically contentious when Ukraine lowered the draft age from 27 to 25.

This disregard for the Ukrainian people echoes commentary in 2023 after the failed counteroffensive, in which US officials criticized Ukrainians for being unwilling to continue to sustain the heavy losses deemed necessary by US military planners. The New York Times reported that US officials were frustrated that Ukrainian commanders “fear[ed] casualties among their ranks.” A later New York Times story reported that US officials were calling the Ukrainians too “casualty-averse” to achieve the West’s goals.

Ukrainian men see what’s in store for them on the battlefield, and want no part of it. Many of them are going great lengths to avoid military service. In November 2023, a year and a half into the war, the BBC reported that despite martial law forbidding adult men under 60 to leave the country, an estimated 650,000 draft age men had departed. As the war drags on, western press repeatedly reports on how young men attempt to walk or swim out of the country before being caught by authorities. Ukraine is turning into harsh measures to crack down on draft dodgers. Videos of young men getting snatched off the streets regularly circulate on social media.

The US plan to lower the draft age expands this terror to an even younger group of people.

Which Path Forward?

Decreasing the draft age another way that the US is pushing Ukraine to extend the war instead of seeking a peaceful solution. This has been the policy the entire time. This war only started because the US decided to pump NATO arms into Ukraine with the hope that Russia would invade and over extend itself resisting growing NATO influence. This explains why the US avoided and ignored Putin’s extensive overtures for a negotiated solution in the lead up to the war.

At the beginning of the war, Ukrainian negotiators were working on a draft agreement for a ceasefire with Russia. These efforts were halted by the US and UK who wished for the war to continue with the aim being to “weaken Russia” at the cost of Ukrainian lives and territory. Though these facts were widely denied for some time, it is now openly acknowledged by key US planners like Victoria Nuland.

Throughout the war, the Biden administration has set red lines designed to prevent escalation only to slowly strike them down as months went by. Restrictions on tanks, F-16 planes, and ATACMS missile systems were all lifted over time as Washington pursued a policy a continuing the war. Recently, during the so-called “lame duck period” Biden has escalated further, authorizing US weapons given to Ukraine to be used in strikes inside of Russia. There have already been two such strikes with US ATACMS in Kursk. Russia has responded by introducing a hypersonic missile into the conflict for the first time - a missile that has no conventional defense. Will Biden escalate further?

All of this raises the other question of what Trump will do? Though one of the only substantial differences between Harris and Trump was his criticism of Biden’s policy in Ukraine, it has been weeks since Trump has publicly mentioned the issue. While some commentators have expressed some optimism because of Trump administration picks like Tulsi Gabbard, the president-elect has picked a number of hawks for key cabinet positions. Recently, he selected retired General Keith Kellogg to serve as Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg has supported Biden’s hawkish policies on Russia, authoring a paper that suggests that Russia invaded Ukraine because Biden was not aggressive enough.

This doesn’t bode well for peace…

The channel The New Atlas contains excellent analysis for people who want a more in depth look at these dynamics:

A Fight For Ukrainian Democracy?

There are still those who believe that the Biden policy of escalation in Ukraine is justified, or even obligatory for some moral reason. The policy of escalation is being sold to both Ukrainians and Americans as a way to preserve Ukrainian democracy, and to prevent Russia from invading other European countries.

The latter charge can be dismissed out of hand. For one, Putin’s entire stated goal for going to war was to prevent direct conflict with NATO in the future. Invading somewhere like Poland or Estonia would obviously trigger such a conflict. Even if one assumes these concerns are fake, how would Russia possibly invade another country when it has not even fully occupied Ukraine after nearly 3 years of war?

But what about Ukrainian democracy? If the West’s goal was to preserve Ukrainian democracy, it has been a colossal failure. Since the war began, Zelenskyy - already a creature of the Ukrainian oligarchy - has presided over a sharp decrease in liberties and freedoms. This has been openly acknowledged in US press.

Since the war started, Zelenskyy has consolidated independent media networks under one state-run body. He has banned opposition parties on the grounds that they may be close to Russia. Corruption has become more deeply entrenched in the nation’s political economy. There has been increasing authoritarian crackdowns of dissenting views about the war. Zelenskyy has also refused to hold elections, even as his term as President is officially over. All of this is happening as polls show that only a quarter of the country approves of his leadership. Recently, his numbers have dipped to a record low of 22%.

Illiberal policies are to be predicted during times of war, which is why the US policy of extending the war runs completely contrary to their stated goal of preserving Ukrainian democracy. The more important goal has always been geopolitical competition with Russia, even at the cost of more dead Ukrainian teenagers. This was true in 2014, in 2022, and it is looking like it will be true for the upcoming Trump administration.