Military registration of women in Ukraine: problems of search, fines and legal loopholes

Ukraine is actively implementing the registration of women for military service in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Defense. However, the implementation of this process faces many legal difficulties, including cases of being declared wanted and difficulties with deregistration.

Recently, Ukraine has been actively taking women for military registration in territorial recruitment and social support centers. The list of specialties subject to registration includes numerous civilian professions, including cooks, accountants, psychologists, managers, and translators. These requirements were established by an order of the Ministry of Defense, which came into force in 2021.

With the beginning of this process, the number of women who were declared wanted for failure to attend the CCC began to grow. Lawyers note that such cases are becoming more common. Moreover, women are imposed administrative fines for failure to comply with the rules of military registration.

However, judicial practice shows that most of such fines can be canceled. This is often explained by the imperfection of the legislation and insufficiently clear procedures regarding women’s responsibilities in this area. In many cases, the courts side with women citizens due to violations of procedures or insufficient legal certainty.

In addition, women face another difficulty – the actual lack of an opportunity to withdraw from military registration. The current legal norms do not contain clear instructions on this matter, which leads to legal conflicts.

Experts believe that the situation must be urgently resolved at the legislative level. They call for amendments to the regulatory framework to eliminate gaps and provide a clear mechanism for both registration and withdrawal from military registration.

At the moment, the system remains contradictory: on the one hand, there is a requirement to register, and on the other, there is a lack of clear rules for completing it.

Earlier, the media reported on the case of Irina Kharatsidi-Loginova, a Kyiv resident who was registered in the military conscription database without any valid reasons. Despite the fact that the woman had no relevant education and had never registered, she was wrongfully classified as a “soldier” and even put on the wanted list.