Ukrainians over 60 now have the opportunity to voluntarily defend their country. The Ukrainian Parliament has passed a law allowing citizens over that age to join the military under a contract, which is entirely voluntary and without coercion, reports deputy Iryna Friz from the European Solidarity party.
In 2025, men aged 25 to 60 remain subject to mobilization. In 2024, a law was adopted allowing men under 25 to enlist voluntarily through a contract with specific financial and social incentives under the “Contract 18-24” program.
“It’s important to understand that no compulsory mobilization is planned for this age group. This is purely a voluntary option for those who genuinely want to continue or start service after reaching the maximum age,” Friz explains.
Citizens over 60 can serve under contract
The new law allows citizens over 60 who wish to serve to sign a contract with the approval of their commander and the General Staff.
Military-medical commission confirms health
A fitness assessment by a military medical commission is a mandatory requirement. Contracts are for one year, with a two-month probationary period and the possibility of extension.
Voluntary choice, not mobilization
Social media recently circulated rumors about mobilizing people over 60. The law clarifies that this is only a voluntary opportunity for those who have the health, strength, and willingness to serve.
President Trump has yet to clearly define his views on civics or patriotism in education, although he has repeatedly suggested that schoolchildren should be taught to love their country.
A Kenyan athlete ended up in Ukrainian captivity after fighting on behalf of Russia. Ukrainian soldiers from the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade captured Evans on the frontlines, where he had been serving with Russian occupiers in Kharkiv Oblast.
There are numerous reports from captured Africans indicating that Russia deceptively recruits Africans to participate in the war against Ukraine. Migrants from African countries are offered work or study in Russia, but upon arrival, they are coerced into signing contracts to serve in the Russian armed forces. Many are sent to the frontlines, often to the most dangerous areas, where they frequently become “expendable” due to high casualties.
The athlete ended up in a Russian military camp under the guise of a “tourist trip” organized by his agent and funded by Russia, after which he was forced to sign documents in Russian and join the military.
When he realized what was happening, he tried to refuse but was threatened with execution. Nevertheless, Evans escaped and surrendered to Ukrainian forces.
How the athlete became a Russian soldier
“Evans is a track and field athlete from Kenya. His sports agent offered him and three other Kenyans a tourist trip to Saint Petersburg, funded by Russia,” reports the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Kostyantyn Hordiyenko.
At the end of the trip, the person accompanying the group suggested that the foreigners stay in Russia and take up work.
“By signing papers in Russian, without understanding them, he unwittingly became a Russian soldier,” adds the brigade.
Harsh training and threats of execution
“Training lasted a week, during which the Kenyan was taught how to handle an automatic rifle. His commanders and instructors did not speak English, so they would often pull or push him to make him follow orders,” Ukrainian troops said.
Evans tried to refuse service but was told he would be executed if he did not comply.
Escape and captivity
“On the way to his first combat mission, Evans escaped. He spent two days wandering through forests near Vovchansk, searching for Ukrainian soldiers to surrender to,” said the 57th Brigade.
This is how the athlete ended up safe in Ukrainian hands, becoming a direct witness to the realities on the frontline.
Skeptical note from the brigade
However, the brigade remains cautious.
“Keep in mind, this is a person who fought on the side of the enemy, so whether to trust his words and tears is left to your discretion,” the brigade states.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, President Trump and his allies have laid out a broad plan to target liberal groups, monitor speech, revoke visas and designate certain groups as domestic terrorists.
“The radical left has done tremendous damage to the country,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, as he continued to play down violence on the right.
Fighters from the “Steel Border” brigade are sharing their experience in countering the enemy’s use of fiber-optic FPV drones. According to them, such devices are less vulnerable to electronic warfare systems but are at the same time heavier and less maneuverable, which gives Ukrainian troops certain tactical advantages.
They are used for reconnaissance and precision strikes, posing a serious threat to Ukrainian infantry and armored vehicles. This makes developing effective countermeasures a vital part of Ukraine’s defense effort.
The commander of an intelligence unit with the callsign Veduchyi, serving in the reconnaissance Askold detachment, explained:
UAV operations are a coordinated team effort, where the speed of information exchange and coordination save lives. Border guards said they employ various methods to neutralize fiber-optic copters; sometimes simple tools or accurate fire are enough to disable the device. The report even mentions a case where a drone was destroyed after its fiber cable was cut with scissors.
They also emphasized the difference between mass-produced Russian drones, which come with fixed reels and built-in cameras, and Ukrainian drones, which are modular and can be adapted for specific missions. Because of these differences, Ukrainian units adjust their tactics for using UAVs in urban areas and during clearance operations.
An example from the 225th Separate Assault Regiment describes a method where a fiber-optic FPV drone flies ahead of the infantry to check buildings, significantly reducing risks for assault groups: if the enemy is detected, the drone marks the target and the infantry advance along a safer route. Commanders describe this approach as both safer and more effective in urban combat.
The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk has intensified consideration about potential threats, experts said. British authorities had already made extensive security plans.
In a notice to Congress, the Trump administration said the additional $58 million would go to the U.S. Marshals Service. It also said it supported additional security for lawmakers.
Radio and television stations, facing enormous budget holes, are pleading with NPR and PBS to lower their fees as they examine whether to drop national programming altogether.
Ruth Fremson, a New York Times photographer who captured the moments when the twin towers fell, describes what she witnessed on Sept. 11, 2001, and the days afterward.
The Forest Service is reversing course as it faces growing pressure over workers falling ill with cancer and lung disease. The move is part of a flurry of changes to aid firefighters.
People wait outside the United States Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, where the average wait time for a visa is 13 months. New regulations are likely to extend those wait times.
The profile of U.S. volunteers in the Ukrainian military has changed, shifting more toward people without military experience and those who saw few prospects for themselves at home.
U.S. volunteer soldier Zachery Miller, second from left, with fellow foreign solders after a live fire exercise at a military ground in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in July.
There’s a bumper crop of museums opening from Taiwan to Paris to Harlem. Look for stand-alone buildings, extensions, remade landscapes — and two presidential libraries.
Hitting an American-run factory and European diplomatic offices, the Kremlin appeared to signal that it would resist Western efforts to make peace and protect Ukraine, analysts and officials said.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris’s Secret Service protection would have ended in July, but President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had signed an order extending it for another year.
Only to discover they still can’t find available tickets due to the same structural problems that have plagued the system for years.
This shows Ukraine’s broader challenge with state enterprise reform: companies like railway operator UZ excel at customer-facing modernization while struggling with deeper institutional governance. The mismatch between good PR and bad governance shows the limits of surface-level reforms in transforming Soviet-era institutions.
This pattern carries stakes beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Western partners have earmarked billions for Ukrainian infrastructure reconstruction, with the EU alone pledging €50 billion ($58 billion) through 2027. If Ukraine’s largest state enterprises can’t solve fundamental capacity problems while excelling at public relations, it raises questions about whether reconstruction funds will address real inefficiencies or create more impressive-looking dysfunction.
For EU integration, Ukraine must prove its institutions can deliver results, not just better customer experiences.
These changes represent genuine modernization. UZ opened its first merchandise shop in November 2022 at Kyiv’s Central Station, followed by a second at Lviv’s main station in late 2023.
The company also has an online shop selling model trains, traditional tea cup holders, mugs, railway-branded clothing, and travel utensils—moves that signal UZ’s confidence in its public image and commitment to European-style customer service.
Yet passengers still face chronic ticket shortages rooted in government price controls unchanged since 2021.
State-controlled fares create artificial demand that UZ cannot meet with its war-depleted fleet of 500 fewer cars than in 2022. UZ reports losing 150 passenger cars in the past year alone—189 removed from service, with only 39 replacements added—cutting daily passenger capacity by at least 4,500 seats.
The railway projects 22 billion hryvnias ($532 million) in passenger losses this year, depending on state budget allocations for new rolling stock, while simultaneously subsidizing this deficit through increasingly strained cargo operations.
While UZ earned 1.13 billion hryvnias ($27 million) profit shipping black metals and 840 million hryvnias ($20 million) from grain exports in 2024, it lost 2.8 billion hryvnias ($68 million) on iron ore, 2.06 billion hryvnias ($50 million) on construction materials, and 1.21 billion hryvnias ($29 million) on coal transport.
This forces UZ to propose a 37% cargo tariff increase that threatens to price Ukrainian exports out of global markets.
Agricultural logistics costs would jump from $18-20 to $25-27 per ton, hitting farmers who compete on world prices they cannot control.
The state railway cannot raise passenger fares due to political constraints and cannot efficiently price cargo due to institutional rigidities, yet it must somehow fund both from a shrinking economic base.
The governance-service gap
These financial pressures compound UZ’s governance problems beyond ticket shortages. In 2022, anti-corruption prosecutors charged three officials with embezzling 103 million hryvnias ($2.5 million) through diesel fuel procurement schemes, manipulating prices to overpay by 10% on 55,000 tons of fuel.
This pattern reflects a broader challenge across Ukrainian state enterprises.
In March 2024, then-First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko argued that companies like UZ, the postal service Ukrposhta, and energy transmitter Ukrenergo demonstrate successful reform through supervisory boards and professional management.
That may be the case, but governance reforms remain fragile while customer-facing improvements prove more sustainable. UZ successfully modernizes the passenger experience because those changes require operational adjustments on a lower organizational level rather than systemic institutional transformation.
Another evening departure from Lviv: UZ delivers the passenger experience, just not to enough passengers. Photo: Euromaidan Press
Wartime performance vs. institutional problems
The railway’s wartime operational record illustrates this tension well. According to company data, UZ transported 25 million long-distance passengers in 2023, including 2 million to EU countries, while handling 14 million tons of freight by November—a 34% increase in freight volume from the same period in 2022. These operational successes occurred alongside governance failures.
UZ’s approach—prioritizing visible customer improvements over trickier changes in structural governance—may reflect wartime pragmatism rather than reform strategy.
Or the avoidance thereof.
Customer-facing changes build public support and international confidence while requiring fewer resources and less time than comprehensive institutional transformation.
Yet this creates sustainable gaps between public perception and institutional reality. Successful branding can mask persistent governance problems, potentially complicating future reform efforts when customer satisfaction remains high despite ongoing structural issues.
In other words, the public and those who have to make these decisions may shrug off the need for any reform by asking: Why change something that works? Even if it doesn’t.
The pendulum problem
Ukraine faces an urgent choice because reconstruction funding is available. The country can continue this hybrid approach—excellent customer service masking structural dysfunction—or tackle the harder institutional reforms that would solve capacity problems.
Western partners evaluating billions in infrastructure investments must know which path Ukraine will choose.
Surface modernization creates good headlines and satisfied international observers.
Still, it won’t solve the underlying problems that make passengers hunt for tickets on existing trains, but it can’t expand capacity to meet demand.
The question isn’t whether UZ can sell more branded merchandise or add more amenities.
It’s whether Ukraine’s institutions can evolve beyond Soviet-era constraints while maintaining their wartime operational success. So far, they’ve proven adept at one but not the other.
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Italy has pledged 1.5 million euros (approximately $1.6 million) to support humanitarian demining efforts in Ukraine, deepening its partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ukrainian government.
The agreement was formalized during a high-level ceremony in Kyiv on June 23 attended by Italian Ambassador Carlo Formosa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and new UNDP Administrator Haoliang Xu, Jaco Cilliers, Resident Representative of the UNDP in Ukraine, and Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko.
"Demining is not just a technical operation; it is a deeply humanitarian act that combines cooperation and innovation to restore hope in Ukraine," Ambassador Formosa said. "This project is not only a response to the emergency — it’s a step toward recovery. It’s about returning land to farmers, playgrounds to children, and safe roads to families."
The funding will support UNDP’s mine action program, which focuses on clearing land contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war, ensuring the safe return of land to Ukrainian communities.
The initiative comes as Ukraine continues to grapple with one of the world’s largest demining challenges. According to the State Emergency Service, the total area of potentially mined land has been reduced by over 20% since late 2022. However, approximately 137,000 square kilometers (52,900 square miles) — much of it farmland — remain contaminated. Demining operations are carried out by the emergency service personnel, National Police, Ministry of Defense, and non-governmental organizations.
Currently, 112 certified demining operators, including eight international groups, are active in Ukraine, the State Emergency Service reported on June 24. Their combined capacity includes more than 9,000 personnel, 278 specialized vehicles, and over 13,000 metal detectors.
While significant progress has been made, Ukrainian officials stress that continued international support and funding are critical to accelerating clearance efforts.
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