Ukraine could draft women into the military to “save Europe from war,” Kyiv’s former top soldier has said, as the country struggles with replenishing its fighting forces in the face of grinding Russian gains in the east and a tough winter season on the horizon.
“If it is necessary for us to call up women in order to save Europe from war, we will definitely do this,” General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K. and the former commander in chief of Kyiv’s armed forces, said during an appearance at the Chatham House think tank in London on Thursday.
The diplomat, who took up the position in the U.K. earlier this year, said he hoped to head off large-scale war on the continent “by other means, not by drafting Ukrainian women,” but he did not rule out the move.
More than two and a half years into full-scale war in Ukraine, both Moscow and Kyiv are facing dilemmas on how to refill exhausted and decimated ranks. Neither side offers regular updates on their own tallies of fighters killed and injured, but The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the combined casualty count for Ukrainian and Russian forces had reached about 1 million.
In February, Kyiv reported that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the first two years of the full-scale war.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K., at a Chatham House event in London on October 17. Zaluzhnyi said at the event, “If it is necessary for us to call up women in order to save Europe from war, we will definitely do this.”
AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali
Kyiv has a much smaller pool of potential recruits to pull from than Russia, which has a far larger population. Ukrainian officials have said that should Kyiv fall, other European nations would then come under attack from Moscow.
However, both sides of the conflict are facing similar problems pulling in fresh recruits, and they are keen to avoid politically and socially unpopular moves, such as broadening conscription or announcing a mobilization. Ukrainians and Russians of fighting age have left the countries to avoid being drafted.
In April this year, Ukraine lowed its draft age for men from 27 to 25.
“I won’t sign the mandatory mobilization for women,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in December. “But the decreasing of conscription age—that I will sign.”
Tens of thousands of women already serve in Ukraine’s military, with a sharp increase in the number of women in the military over the past three years. While Kyiv does not have a mandatory draft for women, those with medical degrees must register with the military’s local branch.
The number of women in Ukraine’s armed forces “continues to increase,” according to a media platform run by the Ukrainian government. It said in March that more than 45,000 women were serving in the army as of January, with more than 13,000 in combat roles.
Olha Stefanishyna, a Ukrainian politician, said in July that more than 10,000 women were on the front lines in combat roles. “Ukrainians are standing united against Russian aggression—both women and men,” Stefanishyna said.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski suggested during an appearance in Kyiv last month that European governments should put a stop to welfare benefits given to Ukrainian men who fall under the military age bracket and are residing away from their homeland.
“Stop paying those social security payments for people who are eligible for the Ukrainian draft,” Sikorski said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha backed Sikorski’s comments.
