Starting in 2032, healthy young men will be conscripted into the Lithuanian army, while women will be able to serve voluntarily. Conscripts will also be allowed to train as drone operators, assist the border service or fire and rescue crews, and the armed forces will be able to receive up to 7,500 recruits annually, Nausėda said.
The decision was made at a meeting of Lithuania’s State Defense Council. This body brings together the president, the prime minister, the Speaker of the Seimas, the defense minister and the commander-in-chief of the army.
Lithuania, already a NATO member, fully switched to a contract army in 2008. After the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas, in 2015 Vilnius became the first in Europe to partially restore conscription and began selecting around 3,500 recruits aged 19 to 27 every nine months by lottery.
At first, Lithuanian authorities called the measure temporary, but after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine they expanded it. The Seimas passed a number of amendments that regulated the gradual increase in the number of recruits and introduced a military registration system in the country.
The de facto restoration of conscription was supported by all major political forces in Lithuania, and most citizens welcomed it with understanding; according to opinion polls in the mid-2010s, 52% of Lithuanians supported a return to compulsory military service. Lithuania will not be the first country in the region to bring back conscription: Latvia did so in 2024, while in Estonia and Finland universal military service has been in force throughout their sovereign history.
Poland is not yet planning a full return to compulsory military service, although the authorities have already announced mandatory military training for all men.
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