Within days of each other at the end of July, two avenues for Ukrainian men of military age to stay out of the army were closed: one by Kiev, one by Brussels.
On July 29 the Ukrainian Cabinet adopted Resolution 981. Men aged 18 to 60 applying for consular services abroad—such as passport renewal—must now produce a military registration document. If the applicant has no entry in Oberih, the state register of conscripts and reservists, he is placed on it automatically, with no medical examination to determine fitness to serve. The same resolution obliges the State Tax Service to hand the Defense Ministry its data on every citizen aged 18 to 60 within ninety days.
Two days later Brussels closed the other door. Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1912, adopted July 30, extends temporary protection for Ukrainians to March 4, 2028—but Article 2 provides that protection “shall only be granted to those who satisfy their military obligations in Ukraine, upon presenting, where applicable, proof thereof.” That article applies from July 31. Those already holding protection on or before July 30, and retaining it continuously, are exempt. Cases are verified against Ukrainian military records.
Ukraine’s “evolving military needs… and in particular the conscription obligations as legitimately defined by Ukraine in its legal order require the Union’s full support,” says the EU, and temporary protection must be applied so as not to “negatively affect Ukraine’s overall ability to best defend itself.” The Decision further records that “desertion and draft evasion are not considered, by themselves, to be grounds for international protection.” Some 4.4 million displaced Ukrainians currently hold temporary protection in the Union.