Aid or army? Ukraine conscription laws drain NGOs of male staff

As Dmytro drives his car to the next aid collection pick-up point, he glances at his cell phone propped up by the gear stick. On the screen, a Zoom university seminar is underway. Dmytro listens as he negotiates Ukraine’s snowy, wintery roads. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the business owner spends his days coordinating humanitarian support, and his nights running his companies. “Now I also have to study for a Ph.D.,” he said with a bemused look. Enrolment in a higher education course, under certain conditions, is one way men of fighting age can avoid being called up by the military. As conscription avoidance is a controversial subject in Ukraine, Devex agreed to conceal Dmytro’s identity by changing his name. He fears others will criticize his actions, but he believes devoting his time to humanitarian projects is a valuable contribution to the war. He also said he has donated thousands of dollars from the income his businesses generate to charities and the military. “My contribution is my time - almost every day I have to devote time to humanitarian projects,” he told Devex. “I feel a duty not to just wait for this war to end, but to work all the time to bring victory closer and help those who need it.” Devex spoke to NGOs on the ground in Ukraine to find out how male aid and development workers are affected by the country’s mobilization laws. We also asked what impact these have on humanitarian efforts. Organizations told us forward planning can be challenging, traditional male roles hard to fill, and that confusion and stress obtaining exemption papers is forcing some workers underground. Impact on staff and ops The Ukrainian Parliament adopted new laws in April 2024 aimed at mobilizing more civilians. These require all men aged 18 to 60 to submit their data for military registration. Employers are duty-bound to ensure employees comply with military service duties, and must report workers who fail to report to military registration offices. The country needs more troops to repel Russian advances, as many as 500,000 more, according to Ukraine’s parliamentary defense committee secretary, Roman Kostenko. The exact number of male humanitarian and development workers conscripted in Ukraine is unknown. An indication of mobilization impact on the sector is included in the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Ukraine: Humanitarian Access Snapshot reports. In 2024, the office received 145 reports of military conscription of humanitarian staff from partner organizations. This was an 86% increase on the previous year, when at least 78 cases were reported. The 2024 report stated that military mobilization “affected staffing capacity and overall operations” at humanitarian organizations. OCHA’s Ukraine Humanitarian Need and Response Plan 2025 also highlighted mobilization as a challenge for aid workers. “Reduced manpower due to movements of people and military mobilization have limited the ability of humanitarian organizations – either directly or through their contractors – to maintain the required level and scope of operations,” it stated. Both OCHA and the Ukraine U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office declined to comment further on the impact of the conscription laws on U.N. operations in Ukraine. They also would not confirm if U.N. staff were exempt from mobilization. According to a U.N. insider, this is the case. The limits of exemptions A decree issued by the Ukrainian government in 2023 declared certain enterprises can apply for exemption of up to half of the military-eligible employees on their payroll. This includes specialized U.N. agencies, foreign diplomatic missions in Ukraine, representative offices of donor agencies, implementers of international technical assistance projects, representative offices of international organizations, and international and Ukrainian NGOs implementing humanitarian projects funded by international partners. Organizations can apply for higher numbers of exemptions if they can provide “special justification” for this requirement. Under these laws, the International Committee of the Red Cross has successfully secured a full exemption for its staff. However, ICRC spokesperson in Ukraine, Pat Griffiths, told Devex over the phone that the processes through which the organization had to apply for full exemption for each individual staff member is “complicated and takes a lot of time.” Processes have also changed since 2023. “In-house, we support colleagues with lots of communication to raise awareness of what the processes are, and if there are updates or changes, making sure that everyone is aware of what those entail,” he said. “That complexity … is not unique to us. But it’s a cause of stress, and that can impact our operations.” Griffiths added that ICRC has an in-house staff psychologist for workers who are stressed or demoralized by the process. Some NGOs choose not to apply for exemption for their staff. Veteran Hub, which supports soldiers, veterans, and their families, but is also staffed by vets, is one such example. Co-founder Ivona Kostyna told Devex over the phone that vets remain in the reserve army, and often want to return to duty. This has made operations challenging, however. In the first month of the full-scale invasion, 30% of the organization's workforce took up voluntary mobilization. “We are still suffering the impact in areas of our work that we cannot rebuild because of lack of trained staff,” Kostyna said. When it became mandatory for all staff to register their details following the April 2024 law, several members of staff quit their jobs rather than be reported to military registration offices. Kostyna’s fellow co-founder was also mobilized last year. “That had a huge impact on us, and we are still suffering the consequences of losing the top person in the leadership of the organization,” she said. Conscription happens very quickly, Kostyna explained. When the organization recruits new staff, it must submit their details to the military commissariat. “We have cases when people come to work with us, and they get mobilized within days,” she said. “It’s sad, but we’re dealing with that. We have also suffered the loss of two of our colleagues who died in combat in the last two years, who are never coming back.” Indirect impact Conscription laws are also impacting NGOs’ work in indirect ways. Halyna Skipalska, the Ukraine country director for HealthRight International, a global health and humanitarian organization, told Devex over a meeting in Lviv, that it is now more difficult to find vehicle drivers, as these roles are traditionally filled by men. “It’s also hard to find male psychologists,” she said. This is a problem, as men experiencing trauma sometimes will only speak to a male psychologist. Another NGO, speaking to Devex anonymously, described how it provides male staff with flexible working arrangements if they fear mobilization officers may stop them in the street. Officers may drive so-called draft-dodgers who have not updated their information to military enlistment centers. For this reason, the source said, they exempt male staff from driving out of their city for work, or allow them to work from home and lay low. The same source added that the rate of staff mobilization means that even if they could apply for exemption papers, the worker is sometimes called up before the application is processed. When they leave, the organization tries to continue supporting them from a distance by staying in touch and providing any material needs such as military equipment. “We lost a colleague yesterday [to the draft],” the source said. “It happens all the time.” Women’s work Mobilization law, and other factors, also mean the proportion of women working in the humanitarian sector is high, according to the founder and director of Ukrainian women’s rights NGO Divchata (meaning Girls), Yuliya Sporysh. Now, the aid sector is vulnerable, because “clear reservation rules” do not exist, Sporysh explained. In addition, the sector has grown rapidly over the past three years as needs have risen. This has prompted women to leave jobs in other sectors and move into humanitarian work — while men may have been pulled away from existing roles in NGOs toward military operations, or working for critical war-time industries. “Especially those [organizations] with an engineering component are at risk of disruption,” Sporysh said. “All sectors are affected, especially WASH, winterization, and critical recovery projects.” Winterization refers to the preparation needed for harsh winters, for example, procuring generators to deliver power during planned and unplanned power outages. Almost all of Divchata’s staff are women. But Sporysh pointed out this does not mean the workforce is more stable. Needs in Ukraine are constantly changing and the sector has to react accordingly. “This is especially true now when a new crisis related to U.S. funding has taken place,” she said. “We are facing new challenges, such as a change in the geopolitical position, to which we need to adapt quickly again.” For volunteers such as Dmytro, meeting other categories of exemption is the only way to evade conscription. These include people with disabilities, parents with three or more children, single fathers, or those whose relatives have been killed or are missing. For now, Dmytro can carry on his humanitarian work. But he is aware his status is fragile. “The mobilization rules could change again,” he said, parking his car and putting his headphones on so he can give the seminar his full attention. “When the time comes that there will be a need to defend the country with weapons in hand, we will have to stand up for the defence of Ukraine.”