Ukraine is requiring female medical professionals to register with the military in case their service is needed. The requirement took effect on October 1, although women in a wide range of professions have been required to register with the military since December 2021.
The update specifies that female doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, and pharmacists between the ages of 18 and 60 must register for the draft so that the military has a better account of the medical professionals in the country at its disposal—and where these professionals are already working.
There is no immediate plan to conscript or mobilize women into the army, the Ukrainian ministry of defense has assured. Women registered for the draft are not restricted from leaving the country as men are. Additionally, women who are pregnant or on maternity leave would not be considered fit for military service. Women raising a child alone, as well as those with more than three minor children or who have a child with disabilities, would also be exempted from active service.
Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, explained the new measures in an interview with RBC-Ukraine in September.
“As for the restriction on travel abroad for conscripted women, such a restriction will apply exclusively to women who have already been mobilized,” Venislavskyi said, adding that even women who are now in military uniform aren’t under the men’s travel ban put in place in February 2022.
The first requirement for Ukrainian women to register for a possible draft included librarians, journalists, musicians, psychologists, and many other professions.
“This is not about conscription after reaching some age, as it is for men. It is about conscription in the [sic] wartime. And considering more than 122,000 Russian troops are at our borders, the decision seems logical, timely, and sensible,” said Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, at the time the new law was passed.
“This sends a powerful signal to Moscow that Ukrainians are ready to resist,” Ustinova also told the website Coffee or Die Magazine. “Although we strive for [the] introduction of the contract army, in [the] current situation, the decision to educate as many people as possible to hold arms and to be ready to serve seems [like] a good one.”
Women have narrower draft requirements in terms of age than men. According to the 2021 law, Ukrainian women between the ages of 20 and 40 can be mobilized for military service as regular soldiers and from 20 to 50 years of age for service as officers.
The number of women in the Ukrainian military skyrocketed starting in 2014, the year Russia invaded the Donbas region and annexed Crimea. They have served largely in civilian support roles, such as procuring supplies, but a significant number took to the front lines in battle. Often called “the invisible battalion,” they served only unofficially in Donbas, as women weren’t legally allowed in combat positions until 2018.
In 2020, more than 31,000 women were serving in the Ukrainian armed forces, representing 15.6% of the total force. By March 2021, their numbers made up 22.5% of Ukraine’s military personnel. In March 2021, there were more than 900 female officers in command positions, including 109 platoon commanders and 12 company commanders. In total, the Ukrainian military had classified more than 13,000 women as “combatants.” Additionally, 257 women have received state awards for their combat service, with nine awarded posthumously.
In August, the ministry of defense announced that it was designing female uniforms, making it one of the few armies in the world with gender-specific uniforms.
