WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to help expand the pool of fighting age men available to help a badly outmanned Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months.
But with time running out, the Biden White House is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and now must dramatically increase its manpower if it’s going to stay in the fight with Russia.
The official said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the US administration believes they probably will need more.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday applied for an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Nearly a million people were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to escape the 2017 military crackdown that UN experts have referred to as a “genocidal campaign,” amid evidence of ethnic cleansing, mass rape and killings.

ICC judges authorized an investigation into these events in 2019, saying that there was a “reasonable basis to believe widespread and/or systematic acts of violence may have been committed that could qualify as crimes against humanity.”

Although Myanmar is not a state party, Bangladesh ratified the ICC Rome Stature in 2010, which allows the court to have jurisdiction over some crimes related to the Rohingya because of their cross-border nature.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced the application for an arrest warrant for Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during a visit to Bangladesh, where he met members of the displaced Rohingya population.

“My office is submitting applications to the judges of the pretrial chamber and this first application is for Min Aung Hlaing, the acting president of Myanmar and the head of the Defense Services of Myanmar. Other warrant applications will follow soon,” he said in a video message.

Hlaing took power from Myanmar’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a coup in 2021. Serving as commander in chief of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar, since 2011, he is accused of having directed attacks against Rohingya civilians.

The ICC chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Hlaing “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh” between Aug. 25, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017 by the armed forces, “supported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians.”

The arrest warrant application “draws upon a wide variety of evidence from numerous sources such as witness testimonies, including from a number of insider witnesses, documentary evidence and authenticated scientific, photographic and video materials,” Khan’s office said.

Khan’s application is the first against a high-level Myanmar government official since the ICC investigation started seven years ago.

Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News it was a big development in the course of delivering justice to the Rohingya community and paving the way for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

“Eventually, it will create psychological pressure on the Myanmar military junta. It will also pave the way for the world to create a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis, ensuring reparation with rights, dignity, and citizenship,” he said.

In 2022, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, started a separate case brought by Gambia, which accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. Five European countries and Canada have backed the proceedings.

“It’s true that a genocide had been conducted aiming to completely wipe out the Rohingya, and the Myanmar military has committed this crime. The Rohingya have been demanding for many years that those who are responsible for this genocide should be brought to trial,” Nur Khan said.

“We want to remain hopeful that this process will be expedited and that the Rohingya will get back their rights soon.”