Almost 8,500 volunteers have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine through recruiting centers over the past year.

The Ministry of Defense shared this information.

The Ministry reported that a year ago, namely in February 2024, the first recruiting center of the Ukrainian army was launched in Lviv.

During this period, 41,296 citizens have applied to the centers in different regions, including 1,808 over the past week.

According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 8,500 volunteers have already begun the process of registering for military service to join the Ukrainian military in the near future.

The most popular positions among volunteers who want to join the Defense Forces are those of UAV operators.

There are currently 48 recruitment centers in Ukraine, including one online center. The most active are residents of the Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The Ministry of Defense noted that the recruitment centers, which are mostly located in the premises of the ASCs, provide exclusively confidential consultations. Mobilization activities and the delivery of summonses by notification groups are prohibited on their territory.

Recently, it was reported that recruitment centers in different regions of Ukraine demonstrate a high level of female involvement.

The highest percentage of female candidates for the Ukrainian Defense Forces was recorded in the following regions: Chernivtsi – 46%, Khmelnytskyi – 42%, Ternopil – 38%, Rivne – 33%, Chernihiv – 31%, Odesa – 29%, Sumy – 27%. In the online recruiting center that operates throughout Ukraine, this figure is 37%.

Recruiting young people to the military

Last week, the government approved the Ministry of Defense’s “Contract 18-24” project. According to the document, recruiting centers and brigade recruiters will select candidates aged 18-24 for military service.

The contract will be signed for a period of one year. A prerequisite is participation in combat operations for at least six months.