Ukraine Expels 30,000 Students After Draft Deferment Checks
Ukraine expelled nearly 30,000 students after draft deferment checks, as inspections target men over 25 enrolled in higher and vocational education.
Nearly 30,000 mobilization-age students were expelled from Ukrainian vocational and higher education institutions in 2025 following official inspections, the Ukrainian outlet Telegraf reported.
The checks focused on students who could qualify for deferment from mobilization, including men over the age of 25.
According to Telegraf, Ukraine’s State Service for Education Quality has been inspecting educational institutions, and almost 30,000 students were expelled last year as a result.
Ruslan Gurak, head of the State Service for Education Quality, told the outlet that inspections and expulsions in this category continued in 2026. He said the large-scale enrollment of men over 25 had become a serious problem for Ukraine, making it necessary to determine how they were admitted and whether they were actually studying. According to Gurak, this should help establish whether student status was being used to avoid mobilization.
In January 2026, however, the Verkhovna Rada did not support a bill that would have abolished draft deferments for men over 25 studying at vocational or higher education institutions.
In 2025, Verkhovna Rada deputy Ruslan Gorbenko proposed prison terms for university rectors who formally enrolled men of draft age for the purpose of securing mobilization deferments.
In 2024, Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science banned full-time postgraduate study on a contract basis. The ministry said at the time that postgraduate education should not become a corrupt route for avoiding mobilization. In June 2025, the Kiev District Administrative Court overturned that decision.
General mobilization has been in force in Ukraine since February 2022 and has been extended repeatedly. Videos regularly circulate on social media showing forceful detentions and clashes between residents and military enlistment officers in different cities. Employees of territorial recruitment centers, in an effort to meet mobilization targets, take men into the Ukrainian Armed Forces indiscriminately, including people with disabilities and fathers of large families.