Both men and women should serve in army – Palisa

Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa believes that everyone should serve in the army: both men and women. In his opinion, Ukraine should study the experience of Israel in this matter. He stated this in an interview with Bihus.Info

"This is my opinion, I am not sure that the Presidential Office generally shares it, but, perhaps, in the conditions in which we remain and are projected to remain for the next 10-20-30 years... That is, our neighbor is the one who wants to destroy us physically: as a people, as a nation, as a state, as a sovereign subject. It will not abandon his intentions. Perhaps it will postpone them for later," said Palisa.

He emphasized that, given the current experience, it would be absolutely logical for Ukraine to approach the issue of scaling up the army in times of military threat more deeply.

"We will have to live with this, with the understanding that everything can happen again if we are not strong enough. In order to be strong enough and not have such nuances with the involvement of citizens in the army, it seems to me that we need to think through a certain transition period so that citizens have a clear understanding that everyone should serve," Palisa added.

The deputy head of the President's Office is convinced that Ukraine should study the experience of Israel in the issue of involving citizens in service.

"No matter how wild it may sound now, perhaps we need to study the experience of Israel. If a citizen is really a citizen and claims to receive a position from the state, education, or in general claims to receive some payments from the state budget, they must serve. Okay, the minimum contract might be a year. Both men and women. In the army, especially in the modern army, there is a lot of different work for all people," Palisa said.

In his opinion, in a year of such service, citizens will be able to undergo basic combined-arms training and will better understand the specifics of military service.

"They will be able to absolutely consciously join the reserve in the same unit, in the same team where they served. Both men and women will have a better understanding of what the Armed Forces are," Palisa noted.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, a Harpy unit has appeared in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where drone operators will be exclusively women.

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