Women in Most Professions Will Have to Register for Military Duty

The list includes many popular professions: programmers, doctors, lawyers, journalists and musicians.

In Ukraine, women in hundreds of professions will have to register for mandatory military service. The order of the Ministry of Defense dated October 11 has entered into force. 

The document approved a list of professions related to the corresponding military registration specialties. Women who obtain these professions will be placed on the military registry. 

The ministry said the order was issued to implement amendments to the Law on Military Duty and Military Service dated March 30, 2021. 

The amendments to the law state: “Women who have a specialty and/or profession related to the corresponding military registration specialty defined in the list approved by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and who are fit for military service based on their health and age, shall be placed on the military registry of conscripts.” 

Women who have the relevant specialty and who are “fit for military service based on their health and age” will be placed on the military registry. The maximum age for women is 60. 

Such women may be called up to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or to work on ensuring the protection of the state in wartime. In peacetime, they may be drafted into the troops only voluntarily under a contract. 

The law states: “Women perform military duty on an equal basis with men.” Now employers must ensure that women in the relevant specialties who already work at the enterprise register for military service. 

Employers must also now check documents confirming military registration before hiring a woman. Violations will be punished with fines from the State Labor Service and the territorial recruitment and social support center. 

The ministry promises to further explain the exact procedure for registering women and the deadlines within which they must obtain their new status. 

Nataliya Voronkova
adviser to the deputy minister of defense

I will call several military enlistment offices and find out whether they have an action plan, since each office independently determines the algorithm for registration. I think we will develop an algorithm, and by the end of next week it will be on the websites of the military enlistment offices. If possible, registration will be available electronically, so that you can submit your data online. We will see whether this is possible from a security standpoint. I will talk to the enlistment offices so that we develop a quick procedure, so that not everyone comes to register at the same time. 

Under the law, data on conscripts is entered into the Unified State Register of Conscripts, Reservists and Military Personnel. The registers are maintained by the territorial recruitment and social support centers at the place of residence of the conscripts. 

However, under the new law on declaring place of residence, registration can also be done where a person declares their actual place of residence, not just their registered address. In wartime, conscripts are prohibited from leaving the country. 

Some military experts are already criticizing the document and doubt that it can be implemented, BBC Ukrainian reports. 

Former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko said that now, if a female employee does not register, she will pay a fine of 850-1,700 hryvnias, and her manager at work will pay 5,100-8,500 hryvnias. However, it will be difficult for women to comply with the new rules. 

Anatoliy Hrytsenko
former defense minister

Implementing the order will take at least a year and a half to two years, and that is under peacetime conditions, with military enlistment offices in every district. Right now, in a state of war, against the backdrop of decentralization, the deprofessionalization of government bodies and also the pandemic, this task is practically impossible.