Not enough guns etc. to make use of all the people.

So they decided to give the guns they do have to the 45 year olds?

1. Conscription starts at 25, not 45. (Even 25 is a lowering, it used to be 27).

2. So what? 30-45 is where their population peaks; massive dip right in the 18-30 range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Ukraine#/media...

1. Yes I know, the average age of the Ukrainian conscript is 45, which is why I referenced that number.

2. The “so what” is that it’s pretty hard to argue that the war is an existential event if you are not drafting the portion of the population best able to make war (young men).

1. Sources vary from 40-45, but also mode not mean; population demographics makes mode go like that.

2. 25 is drafting young men; given where their shortages are there just isn't a benefit to reducing this to 18.

I still don't get it.

Usually you only go up the age-brackets when you are more and more desperate, for, you know, obvious reasons. Ukraine is doing it in reverse.

Ukraine is desperate. It's (currently) a war of attrition, it keeps going until one side suffers too much and can't replace stuff. Each side has constantly shifting limiting factors.

This is also why we've seen multiple headlines about Russia running out of stuff: they did run out of some things, then shifted to other stuff and ran out of that, then shifted to other stuff… — Ukraine has a shortage of both guns and young people right now.