Brussels believes the move is needed to address the Ukrainian military\u2019s severe manpower shortage, according to Russia\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service<\/p>\n
Brussels is encouraging Kiev to start mobilizing women amid chronic manpower shortages and has demanded that Ukraine immediately make \u201ca political decision\u201d on the matter, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.
\nKiev launched its mobilization campaign soon after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. Amid mounting frontline losses and desertions, the mobilization drive has grown increasingly violent. Recruitment officers have repeatedly been filmed chasing, beating, and forcibly detaining reluctant conscripts before bundling them into vehicles in what in Ukraine has become known as \u201cbasification.\u201d
\nEU\u2019s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, described the idea of expanding the campaign to include women as \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d at a recent informal EU foreign ministers\u2019 meeting, the SVR said on Thursday, citing information it had obtained. She allegedly warned that Kiev could soon run out of manpower due to a growing shortage of men fit for military service and said that Ukraine should use Israel as a \u201cmodel to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ukrainian man spared mobilization after gender change<\/p>\n
The mobilization of women has long been a subject of debate in Ukraine. MP Mariana Bezuglaya argued as early as 2024 that it was time Kiev started targeting women to meet its conscription quota. Last year, the Ukrainian presidential administration\u2019s deputy head, Brigadier General Pavel Palisa, also voiced support for mandatory conscription of women.
\nAccording to the SVR, Brussels demanded that Kiev immediately \u201cmove from words to action\u201d and make a formal decision to start mobilizing women.
\nUnder current Ukrainian law, men aged 25 to 60 are subject to mobilization, while those aged 23 to 60 are generally barred from leaving the country. Women can serve voluntarily.
\nKiev\u2019s brutal mobilization campaign has encountered large-scale draft-dodging and desertion. According to Euronews, around 1.15 million fighting-age Ukrainian men had ended up in the EU as of summer 2026, despite the ban on travelling abroad. According to the SVR, up to 5.6 million Ukrainians are currently residing in various European nations, with women accounting for 43.4% of them.<\/p>\n
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Ukraine acting like \u2018nation of rapists\u2019 \u2013 MP<\/p>\n
Many men have proven ready to risk their lives to flee the country illegally through forests, rivers, and mountainous terrain. In February, the head of the Ukrainian border agency, Andrey Demchenko, reported that over 70 apparent draft dodgers had died since 2022, most while trying to cross the Tisza River along Ukraine\u2019s border with Hungary and Romania.
\nBrussels has reportedly urged EU governments to devise legal mechanisms for sending back Ukrainian refugees residing in the bloc, the Russian intelligence service said, adding that the European Commission sees them as a reason behind the \u201crise of far-right sentiment\u201d in countries such as Germany or Poland.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Ukraine should have mobilized all men and women \u2013 ex-UK defense minister<\/p>\n
Some Western officials have also voiced support for the mobilization of Ukrainian women.
\nLast year, former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that Vladimir Zelensky should have launched a truly mass mobilization and conscripted all men and women, without sparing the younger generation.
\n\u201cZelensky took a view that he was going to preserve the 18 to 28-year-olds, so it\u2019s not a mass conscription,\u201d Wallace said at the time, adding that the Ukrainian leader should have mobilized everyone and \u201casked Europe to train them because that is not a hard ask.\u201d
\nBen Hodges, a former top commander of US forces in Europe, argued earlier that Kiev should consider both\u00a0drafting women and lowering the mobilization age to 18. \u201cI also think that there is enough work for women in the army,\u201d he stated.
\nMoscow has repeatedly slammed Ukraine\u2019s NATO backers as pushing the nation into a war \u201cto the last Ukrainian,\u201d describing the conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia fought through Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brussels believes the move is needed to address the Ukrainian military\u2019s severe manpower shortage, according to Russia\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service Brussels is encouraging Kiev to start mobilizing women amid chronic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t