Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the illegal conscription of Ukrainian citizens into the armed forces of the russian federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest against the forced mobilisation of Ukrainian citizens into the armed forces and other military formations by the russian federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as part of the so-called “spring draft 2025”.

russia’s “conscription” in the occupied territories grossly violates international law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the occupying power from forcing persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces, as well as from exerting pressure and propaganda in favour of voluntary enlistment.

We call on the international community to increase political, diplomatic, sanctions and other types of pressure on the kremlin regime. We call on the International Criminal Court to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.

We call on international organisations, in particular the UN, OSCE and Council of Europe, to take all necessary measures to protect the rights of enslaved Ukrainian citizens, who are subjected to pressure from the occupation authorities, and to document russian crimes.

We ask Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories to avoid russian “conscription” in every possible way, and in the event of forced mobilization, to leave such units at the first opportunity and return to the territory of Ukraine or go to third countries. If the russian federation involves conscripts in aggression against Ukraine, we call on them to use the “I Want to Live” project and voluntarily lay down their arms to the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

We separately appeal to ethnic Ukrainians who are citizens of the russian federation in the Kuban, Starodub region, Northern and Eastern Slobozhanshchyna within the current Krasnodar Territory, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov regions of the russian federation: remember your ancestral lineage and roots and do not take part in the criminal war against the homeland of your ancestors.

Ukraine, together with its partners, continues to document this and other russian crimes, to work on bringing the russian military and political leadership to justice for the crime of aggression against our state and all the resulting atrocities.