Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has taken “the first steps” to mobilize women in the war with Russia amid troop shortages, says Ukrainian MP Dmytro Razumkov.
Razumkov said that bill 12076, adopted on December 3, contains a provision allowing women who meet the health and age requirements to register for military service as conscripts and complete basic training, Ukrainian outlet Strana News reported.
He has called for this provision to be removed by the second reading.
This change would be significant as it could alleviate Ukraine’s troop shortages and conscript women into war in Ukraine.
Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment via email outside of business hours.
Female Ukrainian soldiers patrolling an area in Eastern Ukraine in December 2014. An update to a Ukrainian military law may allow women who wish to serve in the army to be conscripted into war.
Female Ukrainian soldiers patrolling an area in Eastern Ukraine in December 2014. An update to a Ukrainian military law may allow women who wish to serve in the army to be conscripted into war.
Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated Press
The proposed changes to the law “On Military Obligation and Military Service” stipulate that women who wish to enter the Ukrainian Armed Forces can be drafted and placed on the register of reservists.
Some have disagreed with parts of this provision, including the Main Scientific and Expert Directorate of the Verkhovna Rada Office, which reportedly stated that it is “inappropriate to register women for conscripts immediately before the start of basic military service.”
Ukraine’s current law allows men over 25 to be drafted. It also accepts female volunteers but does not enlist women.
Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuglaya pushed for the change to begin conscripting women in a post on Telegram, writing, “There are no two types of citizens in the Constitution. We currently have illegal discrimination against men. In addition, if women are mobilized, men will be mobilized less – this is one of the factors why you, men, support the mobilization of fellow citizens).”
She wrote that it would be worthwhile to begin conscripting women for “rear” positions as clerks, personnel officers, and security units, allowing men to move to the front lines and join combat brigades.
Bezuglaya added: “War cannot be an affair of the chosen ones, especially when it is not just about territories or spheres of influence, but about the existence of a nation and the right to life in general, regardless of internal strife.
“Without general national resistance to the occupier, the war is doomed to defeat, and the Ukrainian nation to yet another loss of statehood.”
She concluded, “It’s a paradox. The Defense Ministry has failed in the mobilization policy, the generals are literally destroying their soldiers with ill-considered decisions, but this topic is not raised – it is too delicate, you see. Perhaps mobilized women would bring order to this chaos.”
Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, women have participated in the fight for Ukrainian freedom voluntarily.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s annexation of Crimea, there were 50,000 women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with 16,500 directly serving in the military. As of January 2024, women comprised 7.3 percent of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with 62,000 women serving in the armed forces and more than 45,000 serving in military positions, according to the Ukrainian government.
At the beginning of this year, there were more than 4,000 women in combat roles, more than 7,000 female officers, approximately 12,000 non-commissioned officers, 23,000 female soldiers, and 5,000 women in senior positions in the army.
As of March of this year, there was a 30 percent increase in the number of women serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the war began, The New York Times reported.
Previous restrictions had women serving in the army as primarily medical professionals or in accounting, communications, or service positions. However, now women can serve as drivers, grenade launchers, BMP fighting vehicle commanders, deputy commanders of reconnaissance groups, machine-gunners and snipers.
Ukrainian equipment has also been modified to suit women in their new roles. In 2023, the Ministry of Defense approved the first bulletproof vest designed for women, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces began issuing women’s military uniforms for the first time this year.
The idea of drafting women into the war is not new. General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and the former commander in chief of Kyiv’s armed forces, said that Ukraine could begin drafting women into the military to “save Europe from war.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken out against mandatory conscription for women and previously said, “I won’t sign the mandatory mobilization for women,” but affirmed that he would lower the conscription age.
The conscription of women who want to join the war effort could aid Ukraine, as the war-torn country is currently facing troop shortages at a critical time of increasing tensions with Russia.