https://www.wsj.com/world/the-grandfathers-fighting-on-ukraines-front-lines-bb6b197f?st=EQphsx&reflink=article_copyURL_share
This may be paywalled. I’ll paste in some of it below. For the TL
R, Ukraine is deliberately not drafting young men (18-25) to fight, because it doesn’t want to lose its next generation to the war.
I knew there were a lot of older men fighting for Ukraine, along with young men and women, but I thought that was just a characteristic of a war for survival drawing volunteers of all ages and sexes. I didn’t realize the country made that decision to consciously preserve its future.
Hmm. How old can you imagine being as a combat soldier? Even in my forties, I don’t think I could have hacked it physically. To say nothing of mentally.
“The call sign “Did” or “Grandpa” is so common in Ukraine’s army that two artillerymen in a four-man howitzer team on the eastern front use it. “I may be of age, but I like to keep moving—sitting at home or in a headquarters isn’t for me,” one of the two, Andriy Kukhar, said on a recent day hunched down in a small dugout near Chasiv Yar, in the country’s east.
Now 46, he listens carefully to the radio, awaiting his next instructions as he keeps an eye on his phone for news about his granddaughter back home. The other Did is his 53-year-old comrade Mykola Voskres, who has five grandchildren, most of whom now live abroad. He left his job working construction in Poland and signed up as a volunteer the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. He thinks the sacrifice is worth it. “The younger generation of Ukrainians should focus on building their lives and preparing to rebuild the country after the war,” he said.
The ubiquity of the nickname points to a growing problem Ukraine faces as its war for survival continues into its fourth year: It needs all the fighters it can get.
U.S. officials have pressed Ukraine to lower the age of mandatory service, but Kyiv has resisted, worrying that a wholesale slaughter could badly damage the country’s demographics and its ability to rebuild after the war. It has reason to be concerned. The economic turmoil of the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, triggered a sharp drop in birthrates. Ukraine has significantly more men over 40 than in the 18-25 bracket, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
All men between the ages of 25 and 60 can be drafted to serve in Ukraine’s 880,000-strong defense forces. Ukrainian soldiers say the units’ most common age group is 40 to 45.
Often, the oldest or most seasoned member earns the nickname Did, as a badge of either age or affection—sometimes self-chosen, or other times playfully given by younger comrades.”