Recruitment centers to require fresh military registration from 25-year-old Ukrainians

The bill is expected to be up for a vote in the second reading in mid- to late April.

However, the parliamentary National Security Committee began to review all 4,269 amendments on Feb. 27, completing their task on March 29.

Following its submission to Parliament on Feb. 7, MPs submitted over 4,000 amendments to the bill, which had become a target of criticism for Ukrainian commentators. Commentators claimed that both the bill’s initial proposals, and the sheer quantity of amendments, meant that the bill in its current form was not fit for its role.

On Jan. 30, the government registered a conscription reform bill in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. It proposes, among other things, to introduce online summonses for conscription. Other innovations include lowering the conscription age to 25, setting the demobilization period at 36 months, introducing voluntary mobilization for convicts, harsher penalties for draft dodgers, banning civil service without military training, and more.

What we know about conscription reform

Following that, the President’s Office spent 10 months debating implementation details.

The Cabinet of Ministers supported the conscription age reform bill on May 5, 2023, and Ukrainian MPs voted for its implementation on May 30 of that year.

This process has been put into place “in the context of reforming the system of preparing citizens for military service and readiness to fulfill the constitutional duty to protect the Motherland,” the General Staff explained.

Citizens who have reached the age of 25 will be removed from the military register of conscripts and transferred to a new register, now named ‘liable for military service’, the General Staff clarified.

The announcement follows the signing of a new law, lowering the conscription age to 25, by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.