Ukraine’s Parliament Approves New Military Medical Rules for Foreign Volunteers

The Verkhovna Rada approved in the first reading a bill introducing military medical examinations for foreign nationals and stateless people seeking to serve or already serving in Ukraine’s military.

Bill No. 15015 regulating military medical examinations for foreign nationals and stateless people is available on the Verkhovna Rada website.

The document is intended to regulate procedures for determining fitness for military service, as well as establishing links between injuries, trauma, or illnesses and military service.

The bill also provides for determining the need for medical or psychological rehabilitation for such servicemen, as well as the conditions for receiving it.

Under the proposed changes, foreign nationals will undergo military medical examinations at medical institutions operated by the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, other components of the security and defense sector, as well as state and municipal medical facilities.

Current legislation does not contain a clearly regulated mechanism for military medical examinations for foreign nationals serving in Ukraine’s Defense Forces.

In practice, the bill creates a unified legal framework for medical support for foreign volunteers, from determining fitness for service to processing injuries and further rehabilitation.

After approval in the first reading, the draft law must still undergo preparation for the second reading, where its provisions may be clarified or amended.

Foreign nationals and stateless people have participated in the defense of Ukraine within various Defense Forces units since the start of the full-scale war, although some procedures related to their medical support have remained legally unregulated.

The government also recently simplified procedures for obtaining temporary residence permits for foreign volunteers.