KYIV, Ukraine (NEWSnet/AP) — Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on Friday defended the government’s move to bolster the pool of fighting forces by cutting consular services to conscription-age men outside the nation.

Kuleba said the policy ensures men in Ukraine and those who have left are treated fairly.

Tens of thousands of Ukraine soldiers have been killed or wounded in more than two years of war.

Earlier this month, Ukraine lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 to bolster the size of its military.

Men ages 18-60 cannot renew passports unless they return to Ukraine. Some opposition politicians and human rights activists have criticized the move, saying it could deprive Ukrainians of access to services and benefits in other nations, and might backfire by prompting men to seek refugee status elsewhere.

Kuleba gave that argument short-shrift, noting Ukrainians fleeing the war were treated better in their host countries than refugees from many other parts of the world.

“They owe everything they have now in these countries to this fact, their Ukrainian citizenship,” Kuleba said. ”And these men should not forget about this when they argue that the state of Ukraine owes them something. They should not forget that they owe much more to the state of Ukraine.”

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