Ukraine has a manpower problem — not enough troops. But it won’t forcibly draft anyone under 25. Instead, it offers serious money to get them to join.
WSJ: The new Contract 18–24 offers $24,000 bonus, $3,000/month, free tuition, and a no-interest mortgage for year of service. 1/
Only ~500 have joined since the launch in February.
Ukraine is running out of volunteers. After 3.5 years of war, most willing men are already fighting. Others evade the draft by hiding or fleeing the country.
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18-year-old Kyrylo Horbenko signed up the day he turned 18.
In 2023, he and his friends visited a recruitment office at 16. Officials laughed them out. Most later left or lost interest. He waited. And joined.
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Trump: I don't like what Putin's doing — he's killing people and bombing cities.
I've known him a long time and got along with him, but this is not okay. We're talking, and he's launching rockets. 1/
Trump: Von der Leyen called and asked to extend tarrif deadline date to June 1.
I agreed to shift it to July 9. She wants serious negotiations. We'll talk soon to reach a deal. 2/
Trump: 31% of Harvard students are foreigners. We give Harvard billions, including grants we might stop, yet they won’t tell us who these students are.
Americans are being pushed out. No foreign government funds Harvard. 3/
Ukrainian forces stopped Russia’s advance, forcing Moscow to spend over 160,000 lives this year to gain just 1,600 km² - less than 0.7% of Ukraine, WP reports.
Russia hasn’t taken a major Ukrainian city since 2022 and now loses around 1,500 troops per day. 1/
Ukrainian forces have also degraded Russia’s armored fleet.
Moscow has already lost over 3,000 tanks and now relies on refitted T-62s and T-55s pulled from deep Soviet-era storage.
Russia produces only ~200 new tanks annually - far too few to replace its losses. 2/
Ukrainian fortifications in eastern Ukraine - anti-tank obstacles, electronic warfare, and FPV drones - have stalled Russian advances for a year.
Russians failed to break through near Avdiivka, Bakhmut, and Chasiv Yar - key targets in Donetsk Oblast. 3/
Bloomberg: It disconnects 20 Russian banks from SWIFT, bans Nord Stream 1 and 2, and lowers the G7 oil price cap from $60 to $45. 1/
The package also includes €2.5B in new trade restrictions and fresh transaction bans on 24 additional Russian banks.
But European Commission is still consulting member states. No final timeline set. 2/
Germany backs a formal ban on the Nord Stream pipelines.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Rome he supports EU measures to prevent any revival of Nord Stream 2, which was never certified and partially damaged in 2022. 3/