Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says that from 2024, Ukraine is planning to completely replace conscription for military service with 3-4 months intensive training.

This is stated in Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s Presidential Decree № 36/2022 “On the first-priority measures towards strengthening the nation’s defence capabilities, the attractiveness of military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and gradual transition to professional army” signed yesterday, February 1, 2022.

From January 1, 2024, we plan to completely replace conscription with short-term intensive training. One of the elements of the reform is the complete replacement of the conscription with short-term intensive training from January 1, 2024.

“The President instructed, and we have prepared a vision of a model, at the first stage of which the conscription is maintained, but short-term (3-4 months) intensive military training is introduced as an alternative. Having completed such training, young people do not “will be subject to conscription.”,” – Reznikov noted.

From January 1, 2024, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine plans to completely replace conscription for military service with short-term intensive training.

Gradually, the number of people involved will increase, and their skills will be maintained through periodic training and gatherings.

Political issues

To implement such a model for the formation of a mobilization reserve, legislative changes are needed, which are being prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

“To implement abovementioned steps the Government will shortly propose a set of necessary draft laws and bylaws. We hope the Parliament to be unanimous on these issues,” the Minister of Defense said.

Nowadays, the term of conscription is 18 months or 12 months (if the recruiter has a bachelor’s or master’s degree).

In addition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, conscription for term service is carried out to other military formations of Ukraine – the State Border Guard Service, the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Special Transport Service.

In July 2021, the leader of the “Sluha narodu” Party Oleksandr Kornienko said that their faction is working to abolish the conscription in 2023.

This is the second attempt in Ukraine to abolish the conscription, for the first time it was held until 2014, but due to the lack of mobilization resource to repel Russian aggression, it returned to it in 2015.

Among the foreign experience, the countries that use a mixed system of military equipment – Austria, Israel, Estonia, South Korea, Norway, Finland and many others.

In addition, with the change in the geopolitical situation, namely the Russian aggression against Ukraine, some European countries returned to this system, in particular Sweden and Lithuania.