Over 27,000 young men are on Lithuania’s 2024 conscription lists compiled by the Defence Ministry on Thursday, most likely for the last time under the current model, as politicians are considering reforming the military conscription system.
“This year’s list includes 27,291 Lithuanian citizens,” Arūnas Balčiūnas, head of the Military Conscription and Recruitment Service, said after the conscription lists were randomly generated by a computer program in the presence of independent observers.
The draftee lists are to be published online at https://sauktiniai.karys.lt by January 10.
A total of 3,845 men aged between 18 and 23 years will be called up for a nine-month military service this year.
The first conscripts are expected to start their service at the Air Defence Battalion in Radviliškis in early February.
Higher education students are not included in the lists, but they can be called up for one year after graduation until the age of 26. They can suspend their studies during their compulsory military service or complete junior officer command training over three years while studying.
There is also an option to perform voluntary non-permanent military service in the National Defence Volunteer Force.
All men and women aged between 18 and 38 can volunteer for enlistment in the Armed Forces.
Up to 5,000 conscripts in the future
“This year, the conscription system is still operating under the current regulations,” Deputy Defence Minister Žilvinas Tomkus told reporters on Thursday.
“We expect that the Seimas will approve the proposals to amend the Law on Military Conscription [...] to create the legal prerequisites for moving towards universal conscription,” he added.
The draft subscription reform, which would allow to draft more young men, passed the first reading in the parliament in December.
Under the new model, the conscription age limit would be set at 18-21, instead of the existing 18-23, and studies in higher education establishments would not be seen as a reason to postpone military service.
Further reading
The Defence Ministry expects that up to 5,000 young men could be called up for military service each year once the reform is implemented.
“There is a need and there are possibilities,” Tomkus said. “If we switched to the new system in 2025, it doesn’t mean that we would reach 5,000 [conscripts] immediately. The Lithuanian Armed Forces have to adapt to this change, which takes time.”
“Universal conscription would require significantly greater resources because we would be talking about a new structure, new infrastructure,” he added.
The Lithuanian parliament reintroduced the nine-month compulsory initial military service in 2015.
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