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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukraine is already experiencing a serious demographic crisis as a result of the decision to forgo peaceful talks and instead strive for military victory—a decision that at the start of the war was firmly supported by U.S. and European leaders, Branko Marcetic writes in an analysis for Responsible Statecraft.
The author notes that this combination of massive human losses and widespread Ukrainian emigration has left the country facing a number of factors that threaten its future as a viable state: a shortage of young and working-age citizens to fund the welfare state, a potential labor shortage in the future, and a mortality level that is nearly four times higher than the birth rate.
Currently, some Ukrainian officials and Western proponents of military action are discussing an idea that could catastrophically worsen an already crisis-level situation: conscripting women to participate in the war.
Marcetic noted that this proposal was discussed earlier this year after a woman drone pilot spoke in support of the idea, and a dozen Ukrainian women received fake military summons, prompting media outcry across the country.
The article adds that at the beginning of this month a petition was filed calling for the conscription of childless women, and the idea was supported by some military figures. Among them was former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who, citing Israel as an example, said: "We will only survive when everyone understands that they must defend Ukraine," adding that it would "double our mobilization resources."
In addition, the analyst notes, some of those abroad who support Ukraine’s military efforts have also supported this idea.
Specifically, Kit Kellogg, who until December 2025 year held the position of special envoy to President Donald Trump in Ukraine, recently supported this proposal, adding that "for women, as members of society, it is very important to serve."
Marcetic shared that The Telegraph recently published an article portraying military service by Ukrainian women as a victory of feminism. The piece cited the words of a female drone operator who supported conscription of women and called the idea "inspiring."
However, despite all these discussions, the idea never really gained real traction.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential administration head Kirilo Budanov acknowledged this as "unnecessary," noting that there are still many men who have not been drafted.
Moreover, the author notes, the petition mentioned above gathered only a small fraction of the signatures required to obtain an official response from the president.
Instead, the 2022 year petition, aimed against the increasingly aggressive mobilization strategies of the Ukrainian government, quickly amassed significantly more than 25 000 required signatures.
Nevertheless, the author notes, increasingly frequent discussions about conscripting women, especially from Western supporters of Ukraine, are a worrying phenomenon for several reasons.
"First, as Western pressure reminds us, aimed at breaking off peace talks at the start of the war, Ukraine’s policy on the war and on other issues does not always depend entirely on Ukraine itself," the article explains.
Marcetic believes that this idea is a sign of the grim situation Ukraine has found itself in as a result of choosing to continue the war.
"The very fact that the issue of conscripting women is being raised at all indicates that Ukraine has suffered huge losses, and suggests that shortages of personnel and the recruitment crisis for the armed forces pursuing Kyiv’s military campaign—and the deep social divisions and public discontent they have caused—may be worse than we realize," he explained.
In the author’s view, this also reminds us of the enormous imbalance between Russia and Ukraine, which continues to make a decisive military victory by the latter unlikely. Moscow has also thrown its people into the so-called "meat grinder of war," but, simply put, it has far more human resources than Ukraine.
The analyst added that the serious consideration of a women’s conscription is yet another signal that Ukraine is having difficulties in this area, which is supported by the recent warning from former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov about Ukraine "gradually, slowly losing" the war.
The most ardent war supporters claim that the worst thing that could happen to the country is to be forced to concede territory in negotiations that would end the war.
Marcetic acknowledged that such an outcome would of course be extremely unfair to Ukraine. But he asks whether it is really worse than a future filled with ongoing crises caused by destroying a large portion of its working-age population.
Mobilization in Ukraine: latest news
Earlier, UNIAN reported that Defense Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Hmara said the country needs a new approach to mobilization. Its main metric would not be the number of military personnel involved, but the efficiency of using human resources. Hmara is convinced that such a model will raise commanders’ accountability for people in their units. The Ukrainian defense minister noted that having more soldiers in itself does not guarantee increased efficiency if units do not have enough of the necessary tools to accomplish tasks.
We also wrote that the Verkhovna Rada stated that the country does not plan to draft women into military service. In the Committee on National Security of the Ukrainian Parliament, it was emphasized that women join the Ukrainian Defense Forces exclusively on a voluntary basis. Currently, mobilization of women "is not being conducted, not being prepared, and not being considered."
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мобілізація жінок в Україні: аналітик пояснив, чому вважає це тривожним явищем". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: UNIAN.
