The Ukrainian Bar Association explains that according to Ukrainian legislation, military service can be of the following types:

• Urgent military service. Due to general mobilization, the spring conscription in 2022 has been cancelled.
• Military service under the contract of privates.
• Military service under the contract of sergeants and foremen.
• Military service under the contract of officers.
• Military service on the conscription of officers. This service was introduced with the aim of training and retraining reserve officers in certain military specialties, and acquiring practical experience for them.
• Military service (training) of cadets of higher military educational institutions, as well as higher educational institutions that include military institutes, faculties / departments / departments of military training.
• Conscription military service during mobilization for a special period.
• Military service for the conscription of persons from among the reservists in a special period.

These types of military service differ depending on the basis for starting the service, the terms of this service and the grounds for exemption from it.

Territorial Defense Units (TRO) stand separately .

About the features of the formation of territorial defense units and how service in the TPO differs from service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, TSN.ua understood.

How is territorial defense different from the Armed Forces?

The terrorist defense brigade is not a classic brigade, it differs in structure and tasks. The military units of the territorial defense forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the military command and control bodies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are staffed during a special period with contract servicemen, draft officers and territorial reserve officers. The line brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are supposed to conduct a combined arms battle, have specific weapons and staff for this.

And in the defense there is only a personnel core , on the basis of which a brigade with reservists and conscripts is deployed. Territorial defense units consist of a military and a military-civilian component. The military component consists of military units and subdivisions of the TRO forces. This is the same part of the army as the Ground Forces. All TRO units have access to regular weapons. But if the Armed Forces of Ukraine include military personnel, reservists and mobilized, then the units of the Troops, in addition to these formations, also include volunteer formations of territorial communities . These people, according to the law, can use personal hunting weapons.

In order for a civilian to be able to join the territorial defense, he must sign a volunteer contract (a volunteer contract is different from a TRO reservist contract). Members of volunteer formations of Troops are not exempted from conscription during mobilization.

Is it possible to use territorial defense units at the front?

Territorial defense is assigned to its territorial defense regions (which coincide with administrative regions) and performs tasks in this territory. But SRW units can be moved to other areas of the defense system and they can be involved in other tasks. So in the border areas, the tasks of territorial defense brigades differ from the tasks of the same units in the center of the country.

Who can enroll in terrorist defense?

The frame of the troop brigades and battalions is made up of military personnel who have signed a contract for service in the terrorist defense . Then contracts are concluded with the reserve of territorial defense. At the third stage, territorial communities are formed.

Any citizen of Ukraine over 18 years of age who has expressed a desire to help the terrorist defense, lives in the territory of the community where the voluntary formation operates, has passed the medical, professional and psychological selection and signed a contract of territorial defense volunteer can be a member of the territorial communities.

For participation in volunteer formations of a territorial society , gender, experience of service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not matter . You cannot simultaneously be a member of a volunteer formation during the period of military service or service in the military reserve of the Armed Forces, in other military formations, law enforcement agencies.

Features of the contract in TRO

The term of the contract of the territorial defense reservist is three years . The contract of a volunteer differs from the usual contract of a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in that a person can terminate it unilaterally . A volunteer contract may be terminated early due to a violation by a volunteer of its terms or oath, in connection with the acceptance of a volunteer for military service, for reasons of his health, etc., at any time at the request of a volunteer.

Read also:

Mobilization in Ukraine: what types of summonses and where they can be served

Volunteer mobilization: who, when, highlights

Mobilization of reservists: who, in what cases, highlights

Law “On Mobilization”: text and explanation in simple words

Frequently asked questions about mobilization under martial law: the Ministry of Defense gave answers

General mobilization – who will not be drafted into the army during martial law