Pavlo Bryzhatyi, Patrick Le Tréhondat
From the next academic year, compulsory military training for boys will be introduced at Ukrainian universities. Refusal is grounds for expulsion from universities. Female students will be able to opt in on a voluntary basis. A theoretical part will be taught and then, during the summer holidays, students will take part in practical training.
Pavlo Bryzhatyi, a student of English linguistics at the National University of Ostroh Academy (Ostroh, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine) and an activist of the independent student trade union Priama Diia, talks to us about the situation of students amidst the war.
How did the students live through more than two years of war? What impact has it
had on their studies and their personal lives?
The students were somewhat ready for the continuation of studies through other means, particularly to online studying that was introduced en masse during the COVID pandemic of 2020-2021. Even I had to get used to classes through Google Meet and Zoom after a few months since the start of my studies in September of 2021. As for others comrades, they had to go through displacement due to constant bombardments of the cities they studied in like Kharkiv and through daily air raid alarms that disrupt the studying process in cities like Kyiv. The students had to somewhat switch into survival mode by solely focusing on studies, off-study work to sustain their independence from parents and volunteering for the military.
What do students think of the government’s mobilisation efforts? What do you think about this subject?
Students have mixed feelings about mobilisation efforts, particularly because of inhumane methods employed by local draft centres like in Zakarpattia and Odesa Oblasts and recently eliminated collisions that allowed the mobilisation of partially eligible young men below the age of 25 into the army. On the other hand, lots of students feel the weight of the responsibility for sustaining the war effort by joining the army, organising donations for soldiers and helping clear rubble after Russian attacks, like my fellow Priama Diia comrades did in Kyiv after the Russians striked the Kyiv National University’s Institute of International Relations main campus and several dormitories with it. And I share such difficult thoughts about it with my brothers and sisters, mobilisation should be just and predictable as there are no mandated terms of service for the drafted.
Do you know if many students have joined the army?
Not really, it’s quite difficult to combine studying with active service in the military unless you study or reapply for Correspondence Departments (they are organising purely online studies). There are, however, lots of students who apply for military departments at universities all over Ukraine. Those military departments are remnants of the Soviet Union and are still quite active at several Ukrainian universities, where students can apply to regardless of their main university. For instance, my fellows from Ostroh Academy applied for the military department of the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering in Rivne so that they could prepare in advance by receiving military specialties and with it junior officer ranks with which they shall commence their service in the military. It is something much more predictable than the military training that will be introduced for the next study year.
The government wants to introduce military training in universities in 2025. What do you think of this decision?
In Priama Diia we have begun analysing this initiative by our government. The idea behind it is to force male students (and allow female students) who study for a Bachelor's degree to complete theoretical and practical basic military training. There are only basics written into the law, for example, dates of the theoretical part, which will be held during regular semester studying, and the practical part, which will be conducted between May and September during the summer holidays that universities shall agree on. Also the laws specify the amount of ECTS credits that shall be assigned to those parts, the restrictions that don’t make students eligible for mobilisation before the age of 25 after completing said training and the process of list preparations for the practical part and for the whole training in general, but there are no mechanisms to check its implementation. Because of this kerfuffle in the law, I feel strongly about its implementation as the resistance against Russian imperialism must be well thought out, not be considered an after-thought.
In your opinion, what role will Priama Diia play during this military training? What should it do as a union?
Priama Diia must scrutinise and democratise oversight over this military training, particularly by organising local branches around this issue. As a union, we are actively taking apart every aspect of it for detailed analyses, myself included, in order to make sure that students have a say in how they want to be prepared for possible service. Right now, it’s a sleeper issue, in part due to the lack of specifications for its implementation, but we are ready for when it becomes the main issue concerning students.
What is Priama Diia’s position on the war? Are you involved in supporting soldiers at the front for example or other activities?
Priama Diia has resisted the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine since its revival in early 2023. Some of our former members are serving in the military and we help them with their public fundraising campaigns that are organised by Solidarity Collectives, a network of anti-authoritarian volunteers helping like-minded soldiers and delivering humanitarian aid to frontline population centres. We also help fundraise money to the fundraisers organised by our fellow members for various lesser-known units who are out of the national spotlight.