Recruitment instead of conscription to be introduced after war, MP explains

Yehor Cherniev, a Ukrainian MP and deputy chairman of the parliamentary defence committee, has said that the system of recruitment in the army instead of conscription, proposed by the defence ministry, will be introduced in peacetime.

"A contractual basis for peacetime, people of military age will undergo military training at universities. It will not be a formal military department, but a real training of the personnel reserve for the army," Mr Cherniev told national television on Monday.

"Recruitment will select people based on their education to make them as useful as possible, and not as it is now, unfortunately, when we hammer nails with a microscope."

The MP added that one of the goals of this transition is to introduce NATO standards.

"We see that we need a lot of people for military service, and everyone should have basic skills, starting from school—like tactical medicine, constant training with exercises."

The cancellation of conscription in Ukraine was planned before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In early 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on the transition to a professional army, providing for the introduction of three months of military training and the cancellation of conscription.

At the time, it was expected that Ukraine could abolish conscription in two years.

Since 2022, military conscription has not been carried out due to the full-scale war.