Court orders military enlistment office to remove person from military register after gender change

The Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court in Ukraine has ordered a territorial recruitment center (TCC, the equivalent of a military enlistment office) to remove a person from the military register after a gender change from male to female.

This was reported by the “Sudebno-Yuridicheskaya Gazeta.”

According to the case, the person applied to the enlistment office after changing gender and obtaining a new passport in order to be removed from the military register, but was refused. The TCC stated that a gender change is not grounds for removal from the register and required the Ukrainian to undergo a military medical commission.

The court reviewed the case and recognized the TCC’s actions as discriminatory. The court also noted the fact of gender change “at the biological level” and established that the person does not have a medical or pharmaceutical education, which is required for women to be mandatorily placed on the military register.

The court concluded that the TCC’s actions “violate fundamental human rights” and upheld the Ukrainian’s administrative claim in full, and also annulled the TCC’s decision refusing exclusion from the military register. The court ordered the enlistment office to remove the Ukrainian from the military register and enter the new data into the registry.

Since February 2022, a general mobilization has been declared in Ukraine and has been repeatedly extended, with the authorities doing everything possible to prevent men of conscription age from evading service. Ukrainian social media regularly publish videos of forced mobilization and conflicts between citizens and enlistment office staff in various cities.

Men try by any means to buy their way out or leave the country, often risking their lives. They attempt to cross the border by swimming or through the mountains; in addition, border guards have detained men who disguised themselves as animals, wore camouflage suits, and also tried to leave disguised as an ambulance.