Military enlistment offices will begin calling up citizens from the military register who have reached the age of 25 to provide personal data, undergo medical checks, and fill out relevant documents, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Force said.
The General Staff made the announcement after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law lowering the minimum age of compulsory military service from 27 to 25.
The military said that based on the provisions of the new law, citizens who have reached the age of 25 can now be included in the military register.
The Verkhovna Rada voted in May 2023 to lower the minimum age of compulsory military service to 25. Only men who are over the age of compulsory military service, as well as men aged 18-25 who had previous military experience, can be mobilized for the war effort.
Ukraine's government aims to update the legal framework around mobilization in order to ramp up its number of available troops in 2024.
The Verkhovna Rada is now considering a new draft of the mobilization law after its initial, contentious version was withdrawn. More than 4,000 amendments to the bill have been submitted since its passing in the first reading.
The General Staff pointed out that one of the provisions in the new mobilization bill is the replacement of conscript service with basic military training. The bill also offers recruits to choose a year of their basic military service before they reach the age of 24.
Kateryna Hodunova
