Rada deputy Bezugla calls for mobilizing women and canceling draft deferments for medical workers and scientists

Verkhovna Rada deputy Maryana Bezugla has put forward a proposal to mobilize women for rear-echelon positions and to cancel draft deferments for medical, scientific, and several other categories of workers.

She wrote about this on the social network X.

In Bezugla’s view, the state should create a special “Reserve+” app for women that would track the professions of Ukrainian women and assign them to rear-echelon positions — thereby freeing up men to serve in combat roles.

“Create a ‘Reserve+’ for women so that the state can see what professions our female citizens have, and [carry out] the mobilization of women into rear-echelon positions while freeing up men to serve in combat positions. I would introduce mobilization [of women] not only into rear-echelon positions, but our respected female citizens, and society as a whole, are definitely not ready for that yet,” the deputy wrote.

At the beginning of September, Bezugla had already stated that the mass service of women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was only “a matter of time.”

In addition to female mobilization, the deputy proposed significantly narrowing the range of people entitled to a deferment. In her view, reserved status should be retained only for employees of defense industry enterprises, critical infrastructure workers, and senior officials — ministers, their deputies, regional heads, and deputies. At the same time, she also proposed not leaving the latter entirely out of service.

“And deputies cannot simply be left with reserved status just so they can vote on laws. Yes, we have a unique status, but I believe we need to organize rotations [of deputies] into the army, fire stations, and work in frontline cities — for a month, for example — to improve their sense of reality,” Bezugla added.

For all other categories — police officers, prosecutors, employees of higher education institutions, the National Academy of Sciences, and the healthcare sector — the deputy considers it necessary to cancel deferments. She also supported the initiatives of Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky to tighten deferment conditions, but expressed doubt about their practical implementation.

“We need to pass a law and de-reserve society, implementing the principle of ‘everyone serves,'” Bezugla stated.

General mobilization has been in effect in Ukraine since February 2022 and has been extended multiple times. Initially, men between the ages of 27 and 60 were subject to conscription, but in April 2024 the mobilization age was lowered to 25. On May 18 of the same year, a law tightening mobilization came into force in the country. The number of desertion and unauthorized absence cases in the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to grow. The topics of female mobilization and a further reduction of the mobilization age are periodically raised in the country.