Yelensky announces new law on alternative service for believers
The head of DESS acknowledged that the old legal provisions are ineffective in wartime and promised to create a mechanism for those whose faith forbids them to take up arms.
On April 7, 2026, in Kyiv, Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, announced that a draft law on alternative non-military service is being prepared. The agency is developing the document jointly with the Ministries of Economy and Justice, Ukrinform reports.
According to the official, the current 1991 law is hopelessly outdated and fails to take wartime realities into account. It was designed for compulsory military service, which no longer exists in the country.
“Developing a law on alternative non-military service for the present time and for a war like this is extraordinarily difficult,” Viktor Yelensky said during a roundtable discussion. “The very concept of human rights as it exists now has never known a war like the one Ukraine is enduring today.”
Yelensky clarified that the new bill directly concerns Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religious teaching forbids them to take up weapons or wear military uniform.
In his words: “The Ukrainian state is trying to do this for clergy who cannot take up arms, and for the heads of religious organizations who must sustain their religious communities.” At the same time, he acknowledged that the legal mechanisms for protecting this freedom have not been fully put into operation.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that DESS discussed the issue of clergy mobilization with the UCCRO.
