Ukraine to introduce verification of companies recruiting foreign volunteers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Only verified companies registered in Ukraine will be officially authorized to accompany foreign volunteers when they join the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This was announced by the country’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

According to the minister, to obtain the right to work with foreign volunteers, companies must pass a state verification process and meet integrity and financial stability requirements. The entire journey of a foreign volunteer — from the decision to come to Ukraine to signing a military service contract — will follow unified rules.

“Companies will receive a fixed fee for each foreign volunteer who signs a contract. Payment will be made in stages — after the completion of certain steps,” Fedorov said in his Telegram channel.

Against the backdrop of the new rules for foreign volunteers, Ukraine continues to carry out the general mobilization declared in February 2022, which has been extended multiple times. On May 18, 2024, a law tightening mobilization came into force in the country, stripping certain categories of military-age men of their right to benefits and deferments.

The country’s authorities are taking measures to prevent men of conscription age from evading service. Ukrainian social media, meanwhile, regularly features videos of forcible mobilization and confrontations between citizens and military recruitment office representatives in various cities. The term “busification” has spread throughout society — it refers to the actions of territorial recruitment center staff who take people away in minibuses to unknown destinations. The recruitment office representatives themselves are often called “manhunters.”

Commanders of Armed Forces of Ukraine units, for their part, complain about the low motivation and poor training of 90% of the personnel entering the army through such “mobilization activities.”