Military registration of women: what consequences await violators

From a legal standpoint, women with medical or pharmaceutical education must register for military service. However, concerns about liability for failure to fulfill this obligation often raise doubts. Lawyers interviewed by Interfax-Ukraine noted that there is no criminal liability for refusal to register, and that there are no enforcement mechanisms for those outside Ukraine.

According to lawyer Zoryana Skaletska, it is essential to distinguish between “forced” and “automatic” registration. No enforcement mechanism would force women who have gone abroad to return for registration. They can notify the territorial recruitment center of their temporary stay abroad via email.

According to the law, women can be automatically registered through educational institutions after graduation, employers, or personally. This means that their physical presence is not always necessary.

Liability is divided into administrative and criminal. Administrative liability provides for a fine of 850 to 1,700 hryvnias for violations of registration rules, which may apply to female doctors who have not contacted the CCK. However, such cases have not yet been observed in practice.

Criminal liability is possible only for evasion of mobilization after receiving a summons. Registration itself is not mobilization, but only a registration procedure necessary for the prompt involvement of specialists in the defense sector, if required.

Lawyers also emphasize that women are not restricted from traveling abroad. The restrictions apply only to men aged 18 to 60 during martial law.

Currently, territorial recruitment centers lack the technical capabilities to identify in large numbers women who have not registered. The state register of conscripts has not yet been integrated with the Ministry of Education’s diploma databases, so there are no active measures to hold female doctors accountable.

Thus, military registration for female doctors remains largely a formality, and the risk of fines or criminal liability is low. The primary purpose of registration is organization and defense, not punishment.