Zelensky: “US Will Have to Send Sons and Daughters to War” Speaking at a press conference on Feb. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened that “the US will have to send their sons and daughters to war” if more aid for his country were not forthcoming. “If Ukraine, due to various opinions and weakening of assistance, loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war, and they will have to fight, because it’s NATO that we’re talking about, and they will be dying,” Zelensky said. Ukrainian leaders like Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Melnyk have evacuated their sons to Western countries to avoid the draft. The former Ambassador to Germany Melnyk left his 20-year-old son in Berlin, where he is a student and is said to drive a Porsche Cayenne. Regular blue-collar Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 are subject to the draft. Former U.S. Marine Troy Offenbecker, who is fighting in Ukraine’s International Legion, told ABC News that when a Ukrainian soldier fights on the frontlines in Bakhmut, their life expectancy is only around four hours. “It’s been pretty bad on the ground,” he said. “A lot of casualties. The life expectancy is around four hours on the frontline.” Offenbecker said Bakhmut has been called “the meat grinder” because of the macabre scenes, and he described the fighting as “chaotic,” Newsweek reports.
