British newspaper: Ukraine prepares to recruit 'Gen Z' soldiers to the front

According to RT on May 12, the Daily Telegraph reported that for the registration and recruitment offices of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Podol area in the capital Kiev is not an easy place to find new recruits. In Podol, trendy young people drive electric cars, discuss start-up projects; hang out in lively bars.

The Daily Telegraph notes that when the Ukrainian Armed Forces complain that Ukrainian society seems to have forgotten its young people, this is probably what Gen Z wants.

For Gen Z, however, military service is still coming. In April, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree that reduced the age for men to serve in the army from 27 to 25. And young people in Podol, who are in their 25s, admit they feel unprepared to go into combat.

Anton, a 25-year-old student, told the Daily Telegraph: "I don't consider myself a person suited to war. I wouldn't even think about harming animals, let alone other people."

The situation is different now, compared to the days when long lines of volunteers gathered at military registration and enlistment offices, according to the Daily Telegraph. Now, Ukrainians are skeptical about the prospects of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the conflict, seeing it as "an endless meat grinder that Ukraine may never win, thanks to lukewarm support from the West".

A 32-year-old father, Evgeny, told the Daily Telegraph: "I didn't want to serve in the army partly because of poor command and lack of ammunition, and partly because I didn't want to die in vain."

Faced with such a prospect, many young Ukrainians are choosing not to serve in the army, according to the Daily Telegraph, so they choose to flee the country. Daniel, 22, and a friend plan to catch a train to western Ukraine, where they plan to illegally enter the country through the Romanian border. "Either Europe and freedom, or I will be pushed into the vortex of war," the young man said./.