Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a bill to lower the mobilisation age for combat duty from 27 to 25, a move that should help Ukraine generate more fighting power in its war with Russia.
The bill had been on Mr Zelensky's table since it was approved by politicians in May 2023, and it was not immediately clear what prompted him to sign it. Parliament has been discussing a separate bill to broadly tighten draft rules for months.
The move expands the number of civilians the army can mobilise into its ranks to fight under martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian troops are on the back foot on the battlefield, facing a shortage of ammunition supplies with vital funding from the US blocked by Republicans in Congress for months and the European Union failing to deliver promised ammunition on time.
The signing of the legislation was not immediately announced by the president's office. Parliament merely updated the entry for the bill on its website to read: "returned with the signature of the president of Ukraine".
Mr Zelensky said last winter that he would only sign the bill if he was given a strong enough argument of the need to do so.
The Ukrainian leader said in December that the military had proposed mobilising up to 500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces, something he said then-commander of the armed forces had asked for.
Since then, Ukraine has changed the head of the armed forces and the new chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last week that the figure was no longer up-to-date and that it had been "significantly reduced" after a review of resources.
Mr Zelensky separately signed a second bill requiring men given waivers from some military service on disability grounds to undergo another medical assessment.
A third bill he also signed aimed to create an online database of those eligible for military service. Both those bills could potentially help the military draft more fighters.
A string of strict measures set out in an earlier draft of that bill were gutted following a public outcry.
Mr Zelensky has warned that Russia may plan another offensive later this spring or in summer, and Kyiv's troops have been scaling up their efforts to build up strong defensive fortifications along a sprawling front line.
With the initial shock of the invasion long gone, Ukraine has faced a significant reduction in the flow of volunteer fighters and numerous cases of draft evasion have been reported.
NATO boss floats €100bn military aid fund for Ukraine
NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg has proposed a €100 billion, five-year package of military aid to Ukraine that would give the Western alliance a more direct role in providing support to Kyiv, five diplomats have said.
Under the plan, NATO would take over some coordination work from a US-led ad-hoc coalition known as the Ramstein group - a step designed in part to guard against any cut in US support if Donald Trump returns to the White House, diplomats said.
The proposal is expected to be discussed at a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers tomorrow and Thursday, with the aim of finalising a package in time for a NATO summit in Washington in July.
Until now, NATO as an organisation has restricted itself to non-lethal aid for Ukraine out of fears that a more direct role could trigger an escalation of tensions with Russia. Most of its members provide weapons to Ukraine on a bilateral basis.
But diplomats said there was a growing view within NATO that the time had come to put military aid to Ukraine on a more sustainable, long-term footing and the Western alliance was best placed to take on much of that role.
Some also said that threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would regard various steps taken by NATO allies as escalatory had not led to retaliatory action against them.
As part of the plan, NATO would create a NATO Mission for Ukraine, although it was as yet unclear whether the mission would operate inside the country, diplomats said. Some countries were cautious about even naming the operation as a mission.
